Mistletoe
by titanicavatar
Summary: Tai had been trying to confess to Sora over five Christmases. Never did he realise someone else was there all along, someone he had bonded over ice-cream and coffee. Michi.
1. Chapter 1

**MISTLETOE**

* * *

 **CHRISTMAS 2001: FISHING METAPHORS**

* * *

He finally said it.

"So, Sora, are you going to the concert with someone, I mean, not that it means anything to me – just wondering."

"Oh, er, I wanted to be available in case Matt was free afterwards," said she, even as a deep blush etched across her face. She somewhat tried to cover the cookie box, but then it was obvious.

Taichi's heart sank. At the back of his mind, he tried to contemplate all those times when he thought she might have been in love with Yamato, but had ignored them as mere nuisances. "So, Matt, huh? It's okay."

He went ahead and placed an understanding hand on her shoulder. Sora looked up, a tinge of guilt and dejection slowly replacing the blush, "You're not mad at me, Tai?"

"No," he said kindly, before he gave a slight push towards the backstage door, "Now go. Say hi to Matt for me."

She hesitated, but then turned and smiled. His insides flipped. Agumon quipped in the middle of it, "The least you could do is leave us the cookies!"

Sora grinned, "Tell you what, I'll make special ones for you." She wheeled, and Tai watched her disappear into the darkness with two other digimons. He then exhaled.

"You've grown up, Tai," said Agumon. Tai was surprised; he had never thought that little yellow thing would see right through him. He patted on Agumon's head comfortingly.

He turned a lane. His footsteps were slow, almost as if he were dragging his body. He hadn't felt this down since three years back when he was rejected from the soccer team. He tried to bring his thoughts to focus, but everything was slightly abstract. What made him feel she might have fallen for him? Was it because of the incident with the hair clip? Or maybe she thought he was just too immature. Maybe.

She was happy though. That ought to lighten him up.

Unfortunately it didn't. He slogged on. Agumon looked concerned.

"Tai..."

"I'm okay, Agumon," he muttered.

As they turned another lane, he encountered a blast of stars under a dash of pink. It was Mimi. Obviously. She looked excited, her eyebrows so high they almost seemed to disappear into her pink hair, even as she flashed her teeth. Oh, Tai thought. He just remembered. Asking Sora out was Mimi's idea. Now he'd have to reiterate his ordeal.

"So...?" She asked. Tai spoke nothing and soon enough, her smile disappeared.

"What happened, Tai?"

"She's going out with Matt," said Tai, trying to sound as matter-of-fact as possible.

"Oh."

"Mimi, I think I need some time alone."

"I'm so sorry, Tai." Her voice grew heavy. Next moment, as Tai helmed at her, he saw her lips had begun trembling and fat tears were free falling down her face.

"Hey, hey, hey," Tai panicked, "Why are _you_ crying?"

"It's my fault..." And her sobs per minute doubled. Tai found the situation slightly comedic, and that unexpectedly lightened his heart.

"Hey, no," he said, trying to be as compassionate as possible, "As they say, there're plenty of other fish in the sea. Just – just stop crying, Mimi."

"It's _fishes_ ," she moaned.

"Fish," Tai corrected, "What is America doing to your grammar?" He chuckled.

"Fish is for a single fish. It's fishes when there are a lot of fishes," Mimi stood on her point, albeit still with the sad moan.

"Okay, let's just check over a dictionary, alright?"

"So much for insensitivity, Tai."

"Whaaat? Now what did I do?"

"Fishing metaphors, when you ought to be –"

"Sobbing?"

She broke down into tears again, "You are a jerk."

Tai glanced at Agumon for help. The digimon looked back, powerless and confused.

"Hey, Mimi," he tried to change the subject, "Where's Palmon?"

"She's using my foot spa in the apartment." Some more sobbing. If Tai hadn't known Mimi, he'd have suspected she was coming right from Palmon's funeral.

"Hey, look," Tai sighed, for one final try, "I really appreciated your help. I had to make things clear, didn't I? Good that I know it, all thanks to you. Hey, there's an ice-cream parlour two streets down. Treat's on me. Coming?"

* * *

 **CHRISTMAS 2005: PINK MEDUSA HAIR**

* * *

Mimi Tachikawa had mixed emotions about her return to Japan.

Breaking down into tears and into a mess was her usual way to obsess over and cope with life's problems. But she was grown out of it now; she had matured – if only a bit. Too mature is boring. And anyway, she liked being a bit of everything. And what is Mimi Tachikawa without a bit of ridiculous.

And that instantly made her feel better. She tore off a page and thought of making a list of everything she could shop. She earned a bit of her own money now, with occasional freelance designing – now she was a bit less of a spoilt brat and a bit more of responsible. She laughed to herself.

No. She reconsidered. She'd rather make a list of all things that would make her return to Japan a real deal.

"Hmm. Let's think." She began scribbling.

\- _The City Mall (Forever 21 store, YES!)_

 _\- Being the NEW GIRL at school (?)_

 _\- Joe Kido's house (the cityscape from the rooftop, whoa. *_*)_

 _\- Christmas at Sora Takenouchi's (the BFF from Japan :*)_

 _\- Free tickets to Sora Takenouchi's boyfriend's band concert? (LOL)_

 _\- Can effectively excuse myself from Michael's long distance pecking._

 _\- Taichi Kami –_

Wait. Why did she even feel like mentioning his name into the list? Tai was a jerk. He was the greatest jerk of all time – well, maybe apart from when he had helped save her parents or made wacko plans with her or offered her his ice cream to stop her tears, or when he had protected his sister or looked at Sora with starry eyes that no one else noticed. Separating out three weeks at most – he had been a jerk for the rest of the seventeen years of his life. And that was saying something.

Now that the exercise had positively ruined her mood, she grumbled and crumpled up the page, aiming it over at the dustbin (the paper ball bounced off the edge and she groaned). The moon was dim and the room was dimmer. She flung her arms about and they finally landed on her laptop. A bit of social networking might elevate her. Also, Christmas was around the corner and she might just end up with new design orders.

Thirty seconds into it and a new message bubble popped up.

' _ **Dude! When did you land in Odaiba?'**_

It was Tai. She gritted her teeth. Good god, is this human _everywhere_? Not to mention the very offensive "dude". Did he even know how to talk to a girl? She buckled up with some serious sass as she typed: ' _ **That was very observant of you, Tai.'**_

' _ **Mimi, honestly if it hadn't been the Finals practice Kari and I would've blasted confetti at the airport reception.**_ '

' _ **At least Kari was there. Why don't you go learn some manners from your sister?**_ '

' _ **Uh, you seem pissed. I'm sorry buddy. Don't cry, okay?**_ '

' _ **Are you mocking me?**_ '

' _ **Whaaat? No, I meant it!**_ '

' _ **Rightttt...**_ '

' _ **I'll come dressed as a clown on the day you depart. Promise. :D**_ '

That smiley actually resembled his goofy grin, she thought. But then she frowned again. Reminded herself how irritated she was supposed to be.

' _ **Well, bad news. I'm here to stay. -_-**_ '

' _ **Damn. :P**_ '

In spite of herself, this time Mimi grinned.

' _ **... Ass.**_ '

' _ **Whaaat?**_ ' And there came his response with a dozen of extra 'a's.

' _ **You're an ass, Tai.**_ ' She wrote it with utmost sincerity from the deepest core of her heart.

' _ **Well, that I am.**_ '

Mimi could imagine him smirking at the other end. Such a sadistic psychopath. She noticed he had gone offline, and wondered if she took her anger a level too far. Should she – umm, no, never was there a good consequence in provoking a complete ass.

Then the bubble popped again.

' _ **I like to apologise with ice-creams. ;)**_ '

"Well, if there hadn't been ice-creams, nothing could've saved you from my wrath," she quipped aloud. What an idiot. Mimi chuckled at the screen. Maybe she should've tricked him into believing she was going to leave. Tai in a clown dress would've been sweet revenge.

* * *

"I can't have ice-cream. I'm going to the dentist," Mimi announced.

"Uh, wait what? And you found this dramatic moment to reveal it, with the menu card in our hands?"

"Umm – "

"You could've just told me when I was bugging you last night, Mimi," Tai grumbled under his breath. He buried his face into his palms.

"Well, you bugged me so much it slipped out of my mind!" she shouted in defence. A couple of customers glanced back at the commotion.

Tai wondered how many crimes from the past could possibly sum up being tormented by Mimi this way. He felt like digging a hole into the floor and hibernating inside it forever. He had dreamt of a big platter of black currant sundae since last night, and watching it shatter was painful.

"I wish you weren't so insensitive." Mimi whispered curtly.

He found his temper rising this time. "Yes, correct, I am the one who cancelled a plan on the spot. Just to make a kind friend suffer."

"A _kind_ friend?" she raised her eyebrows, "Which kind friend are you talking about? Did you bring someone along?" She pretended to look behind Tai.

"You can up the drama quotient of the situation once I leave," Tai warned, readying to get on his feet.

"Jerk."

And her eyes reflected something watery. Tai clutched his heart in panic. It was coming. Oh, no, not again.

"Hey, no, Mimi please, don't – don't cry – here –"

"I'm going to the dentist, Tai."

"Oh." Tai realised what she was trying to imply all this time. Mimi's eyes were all googly in the fear of the unknown. She rested her chin on the table, depressed. Tai held back a snigger.

"So, is it a cavity?"

"Yes," she murmured inaudibly, "and I don't like dentists. How painful do you think it's gonna get?"

"Umm," he play-acted to think, "Last time I went, it took two days to stop the bleeding. It was horrible." Mimi gasped.

"You're bluffing," she said suspiciously.

"Does it look like I am?"

"Yes. Yes!" She shut her eyes and bit her lip. She, indeed, was terrified.

"Is this your first visit to a dentist, Mimi?"

"First time for a cavity, yes."

"Anyone accompanying you?"

"I'm a big girl. I told mum I can do it alone... or at least I think I can."

"Owh. I'd rather lend you a handy tip. While they do stuff in your mouth, close your eyes. You won't like the scary drillers."

"The – _what_?"

"The drillers. You know, the things they use to drill out the black stuff –"

"You're bluffing, Tai!"

"Mimi," he said with a perfect poker-face, "you can call me a jerk and what not, but when it comes to the dentist I know that's serious business."

"It's not just the physical pain," she mumbled, "What about the social aspect of it?"

"Huh?" His eyebrow rose even before he could process the question.

"Look, I don't want one side of my face to look like a fat swollen blob at Sora's Christmas party."

Tai's face went blank at the mention of Sora. It felt like an old tinge of pain, a thorn stuck in his feet since so long he had stopped caring about it. It took him a few seconds to get back to normal. By that time Mimi had already noticed she had touched the wrong nerve.

"Tai?" She waited.

"Yeah – what were you saying? Oh, yes. No, Mimi, you'll be fine. It doesn't hurt much, really, I was only kidding," he smiled. He noticed that the sudden loss of his jokey tone concerned her. But he couldn't bring it back.

"What happened, Tai? Are you still..." Mimi stopped midway, realising she was only making matters worse.

"It's nothing. I'm okay."

"Hey, I was your confidante, remember?"

"Well, were you?"

"Yeah!" she beamed, "I was everyone's Agony Aunt in America, you know. Let's talk about it. You'll feel better."

"Um, okay. But not here. The waitress is glaring at us because we're sitting since an hour like goddamn vegetables."

* * *

"Are you sure you wanna do this?"

"So, begin."

"Begin _what_?" Tai looked somewhat aghast, "Do you realise this is real life and we're talking about my real what-could-have-been-my-love-life, and not a movie plot?"

"Cool down, yo," and there was Mimi being Mimi. She flipped her hair from her face and started, "Just tell me why you couldn't get over her. It was you who told me there're plenty of other fishes in the sea."

"It's fi – never mind," he shook his head in exasperation, "I don't know really. Why do you think?"

"Maybe because you're really close to her, you're her bestie... And she's got platonic feelings for you." She pondered on, when lightning struck her. Her eyes bulged with a sudden thought, "Wait a minute, tell me something – I should've asked you this before – it could've made this a lot easier –"

"Well, spit it out now," said Tai.

"Last year, this time, did you _really_ confess to her? I mean, did you tell her you love her?"

"No, that'd have been awkward. And cheesy, please. I asked if she's going to the concert with anyone, that too pretty casually – and I do not understand why I'm telling all of this –"

"So you never really confessed to her. Am I right?"

"Yeah... kind of."

"Well, then you've still got a chance!" She positively beamed, "Maybe Sora thought you don't like her since you've been too oblivious. And then you never really told her how you feel."

"Uh, I'm sure Sora saw right through me."

"No, maybe she didn't," she crooned. Mimi's excitement frightened him, "Women sometimes don't work that way."

"What, don't you women realise if a guy likes you when he's pretty vocal about asking you out?" He asked, unimpressed.

"Well, it's not that. See, we women realise what's going on the moment a guy eyes us. But sometimes we need solid proof. Maybe she was trying to make you jealous. But you never responded ahead. See what I mean?"

"Mimi, do you realise you and your species don't make any sense?"

"Okay. Do it then. Confess to her."

Tai found his face going deep maroon. "Are you _freaking_ kidding me?"

"No. Do it, Tai. This Christmas party. Or you'll never know."

"Sounds like a foolproof plan to ruin my friendship with Sora and Matt forever," he sniggered, "You don't deserve ice-cream."

"I'm trying to be Good Samaritan here and you're not even heeding to me," Mimi began to walk away. Tai jogged after her.

"I appreciate your help, buddy," he said, "It's just that your plan sounds like a recipe for a disaster."

Her gaze dropped to her fingernails. She stared ahead and bit her lip. "I just wanted to help you."

"I know," Tai felt a knotting in his chest. He didn't mean to disregard her, and now he needed to make up for it. He clutched her hand, and while she looked back in surprise, he topped it with a goofy typically-Tai grin."Hey, want me to accompany you to the dentist's?"

* * *

Mimi somewhat envied Kari. Because Tai was so comforting every time he tried to be big brother. Like he had said, the dentist experience wasn't much of a trauma, and a good lunch afterwards helped. He made sure the tooth didn't ache, even caricatured the dentist at the lunch table to break off a few laughs. Although he was very lame, Mimi felt better.

Then all of her sudden-grown appreciation died the moment Tai passed a certain stupid comment while walking down the pavement, patting his food-stuffed stomach.

"Thank god you got rid of your pink Medusa hair."

And lo and behold, she hated him again.

Well, who was he to comment upon someone's hair when he himself hadn't bothered to get an _effing_ haircut in centuries? She grunted silently, thinking back, slumped on her bed and watching the array of clothes scattered before her. Tai Kamiya was a professionally useless git. Yes, the perfect oxymoron for the moron. Hell no, she was descending to his level of lame lines.

It was 6 o' clock and she ought to get ready for Sora's party. She picked up at random – maybe for the second time in her life – since half her mind was still fuming over Tai while the other half fretted on whether her pink-hair phase was as bad as he pointed out to be. She felt an internal screaming over every sight of pink, and her wardrobe didn't really help here.

Palmon hopped into the room so suddenly that Mimi got a jump-scare.

"How am I looking, Mimi?" she asked, twirling in her pretty skirt. And it was pink.

"Not pink not pink not pink..." Mimi covered her ears as if tortured by a loud screeching noise as she jabbered it like an incantation.

"Huh?"

"Not pink not pink not pink..."

Confused, Palmon left towards the balcony.

Tired of herself, she fastened into a black jumpsuit and shelled it with a, sigh, pink coat. One week in Japan and she already wished if her wardrobe had a secret passageway to escape to Narnia. If things went at this rate, she feared she might strangle Tai Kamiya before the school could even restart.

* * *

Sora's party wasn't at all like what Mimi had expected.

There was no bar counter or glimmering dance lights. It had a warm, comforting, even a kind of retro aura. Not taking too much effort to dress seemed a good decision. In fact, she and Palmon happened to have arrived a bit too early; the house was near empty, and Tai and Sora and Izzy were still putting on the Christmas lights in the lawn. Surprisingly no sign of Matt.

"Mimi!" Sora ran to hug her, tripped over the tangle of wires but nevertheless made it, "I'm so sorry I was busy over the weekend with Christmas preparations... I have to, need to actually, chat for long hours with you and – how's it going?"

From the corner of her eye, Mimi shot a glance at Tai. She thought he might wave, but he and Izzy seemed too confused over the battery circuit. "Huh? Oh yes," she said, "I missed you over the year too, Sora. We spent, like, seconds at the airport? And long phone bills kill saucy gossip." The girls broke into a fit of giggles. "Pretty hat, Biyomon," Mimi complimented, and the digimon blushed.

"Yeah, you might just land up with a date now," laughed Sora.

"I guess Biyomon needs a Biyomon to date, don't you think?"

"We are packets of data, Mimi-chan," said Biyomon, "We need human emotions to evolve. Romantic love is a much evolved emotion that we don't possess."

"Wow, four years I've spent with you and I never even wondered about that," said Sora, rather thoughtfully, "But then, guessing Mimi's romantic love must've evolved enough by now?" She nudged her with a smug smile.

"I'm sure Mimi needs a Mimi to date," and the jerk jumped into the scene, "Don't you think?" He chuckled at Sora.

"Get out, Kamiya. This is girl talk." Mimi retorted, "And I've seen enough of your face since the morning."

"Give it a rest, Tai," added Sora, grinning nonetheless. She was distracted by a knock at the door.

It was Matt. He looked like what Mimi remembered of him at the airport. He had a black jacket and his guitar tagged on – he must've been coming right from the band practice. Sora rushed to the door and gave him a small peck on the lips. Mimi couldn't help but look at Tai – to her surprise he had a smile, albeit a strained one.

"Been signing out autographs, have you?" Tai was the first to speak, before he went on and hugged him, "Merry Christmas, brother."

"Yes, and I might just need an assistant," Matt shot him an endearing look as he patted on his back.

"Merry Christmas, Matt," said Mimi, beaming, "Please tell me you'll sing here tonight."

* * *

Within the next hour, the place was packed.

"...And then it was a disaster," said Joe, so animated that he could spill his drinks over Izzy and Mimi any second, "And then I dreamt for a week that I've begun to answer the wrong paper only to realise it in the last minute."

"A medic's life must be pretty crazy I guess," commented Izzy, "and all I've been worried about is how to upgrade the OS without spending a buck." He grinned sheepishly.

"How're things in America, Mimi?" asked Joe, taking a respite from their geek talk.

"Oh well, it's usual I guess, I hardly feel a difference. There's school, and there're cute guys and good clothes and interesting design demands and – and er, that's it," she gave an awkward smile.

"I heard America launched the GT-17 OS, and it's still not there in Japan..."

"You know what, my brother's laptop crashed recently," said Joe, "I think you should come over and check. And there's this app that helps me with the anatomy, it's new and crazy..."

It didn't take Mimi a lot of time to realise she was useless in this discussion. She didn't even want to try; she knew these two could even dig out deep physiological and programming aspects of fashion and let their geek streaks out. She sighed.

"Hey, I need to visit the washroom," she handed her goblet to Izzy, "I'll be right back..." and she escaped as fast as she could.

She looked around for Palmon. The other digimons must have been on the 1st floor, she thought, and discarded the idea of trying to find her. The music was soft and catchy country. She tapped her foot on her own for a while, but no one else was dancing. Exasperated, she headed for the empty balcony; despite the shivery cold, it looked particularly inviting.

Her stomach growled as she leaned on the railing. She couldn't figure whether she was sick or hungry. The tune of the last song was still caught on her mind. It indeed was shivery; she could sense the cold seeping in through her coat.

"Do not lick the steel."

She turned. It was Tai, of course. She groaned at his sight, loud enough for him to hear. He smirked.

"Why in the digiworld will I do that?!"

"I don't know, what else can probably make you leave the cosy room and bring you into this goddamn cold?" he leaned on the railing sideways; strands of his hair were already drooping with frost drops, "And I personally always found it tempting."

"Well, of course you did."

"Hey, I took you to the dentist, don't you think I deserve better manners?"

"You called me Medusa!?"

"Well, I didn't technically call you Medusa. But you cancelled my ice-cream treat on my face!"

"Because I had to go to the dentist, genius."

"Remind me again, who took you to the dentist?"

"This conversation is so recursive." She sighed into her palms.

"Yeah, I agree." he chuckled, "And I guess I missed you a bit too, Mimi." Tai softly punched into her arm.

"Whoa," she laughed, and her eyebrows shot up dramatically, "Who are you and what have you done to Taichi Kamiya?" He joined in the giggles.

It was then they heard shouts in the hallway. Tai looked at Mimi, frowning, unsure if he heard it right, but then Mimi nodded in confirmation. Both of them ran for it. Tai was about to barge in when Mimi held him back. The hazy lights made two shadows – and they seemed to achingly resemble Matt and Sora.

" _What_?" Tai whispered fiercely at Mimi.

"It's a private moment. You _cannot_ interfere," she whispered back.

Matt and Sora were shouting at the top of their voices, while Tai and Mimi stood behind the door in silence, stuck unwittingly in the situation.

"Are you even listening to what I am saying, Matt?" Sora screamed, "I never even thought it would come to this!"

"Why don't you just shut the _fuck_ up, Sora?!"

At that point Mimi was practically wrestling against Tai to hold him back. "No, you can't ram into here," she mouthed at him.

"I abhor you, Ishida," Sora broke into tears, "I abhor you."

"Why don't you ditch me then? Why still stick with me?" asked Matt darkly.

"If you hadn't been this self-obsessed you would've understood. You could've just told me the day I asked you out that I'm not up to your level."

"What the fuck are you even talking about?!"

"I _loved_ you, Matt," she sobbed.

An uneasy silence filled up the hallway. Mimi supposed Matt was going to slam the door shut and leave. Sora's sobs were persistent. Mimi realised Tai was still trying to break free, and while she could understand what was going on his mind, she knew he didn't possess the tact to handle the situation if he burst into it.

"Past tense," asserted Matt.

"That's it," Tai uttered with finality. He pulled away so hard that Mimi almost collapsed into him. He stomped a few steps ahead, but then stopped short, frozen. Mimi looked from behind him. Matt and Sora were locked in a tight embrace, their lips touching and eyes closed, unaware of either Tai's or Mimi's presence.

Mimi exhaled. It was strange. It was abrupt. And it must've had killed Tai. He must've been as confused as a little child right now, gaping at the complexity of human relationships. Why was she still hugging the man who hurt her? Why did he hurt her at the first place? Why couldn't she walk away? Why didn't this work the more logical way, like clockwork? Maybe they were being sarcastic. Maybe they cared too deeply to mean any of it.

Tai needed to understand, thought Mimi. He needed to be mature. But at the end of the day, it stung her to see the boy who had sacrificed so much for everyone, so broken inside.

"Come, Tai," she sighed quietly, a little apprehensive of his reaction. But he budged and followed her out to the lawn. Oh Tai, why didn't you confess to her sooner? But would even that have had been to any avail?

"Hey," she punched him into the arm the way he had before, "We'll figure it out."

"Yeah," he forced a smile, "Anyway, I'm happy."

Mimi didn't know what to say. Tai, of all people, _deserved_ to be happy.

* * *

Just felt like writing this. Would be just a couple of chapters long. Michi, bitchezzz.


	2. Chapter 2

**CHRISTMAS 2006: DELILAH**

* * *

Christmas was a month to go.

Mimi Tachikawa had sat down at her study supposedly to do her homework, but was instead staring elusively out of the window pane, watching the glittering snow settle. It was one of the coldest, dullest winters in Japan that she could remember. That being said, it wasn't even the point.

Although the room was warm enough, she felt uncomfortable. A little bit giddy, a little bit happy, and a little bit pained. All while she replayed conversations in her mind even as the algebra sum looked on, expectant.

High School was unexpectedly fun. The studies were tough; not a lot of new friends, but it was certainly doable. Her freelancing was going just fine. All was okay but for her fast turning into the divine matchmaker for Tai and Sora, or at least trying to be, which had got her all confused.

Yes, _confused_ was the word.

And he was so _freaking_ oblivious. So oblivious that she suspected he might've had accidentally missed out on getting the Crest of Not Noticing Shit. Sure he knew how to handle things when nasty digimons popped up every now and then (which seemed to be happening a lot lately, and he happened to be their good ol' leader), he knew when to protect his sister and when to give her ground (at which Matt still sucked, much to TK's annoyance), but when it came to this particular subject, Tai was a huge mess. He had always been a huge mess.

Ergo, he still longed for Sora, and Sora was his closest friend, and despite Matt and her relationship had been on rocks forever she hardly turned an eye on it, and things were so very complicated, yada yada, the whole Tokyo knew the story. Mimi was hell tired of the dramatic tension.

Why couldn't they be the kids they used to be when they first knit up as a squad? Or maybe they still were, and neither Tai nor Sora nor Matt was probably thinking so much into it as Mimi was.

And maybe that was because Mimi couldn't understand where she figured in the larger scheme of things. Why was she warming up to Tai like that? Because he moped of being the loser in love. Only that he never moped. He had other, way more important things to care about. Then?

Maybe she wondered what it'd be like to be in love with Tai.

No. _No_. Just no. It couldn't make sense. Firstly, it was unethical. She cared about Sora too deeply to even think about it. Secondly, Tai confused her existence with the colour pink. So no _. Remind me again, why am I still on this line of thought?_ She grunted and thumped her head onto her arms on the desk.

Her phone beeped. She raised her head a bit and checked. It was a text.

 _ **Hey there, Delilah. What's it like in New York City? :)**_

She bit her lip and smiled. Then nestled her head into her arms again. Her mind drifted to the wintery yesterday afternoon, when dozing over the same algebra sum at her desk, her door was knocked at by a certain visitor.

"Mimi!"

She had pressed her face against the glass pane following the faint voice that came from outside. She saw Tai standing at the porch, knee-deep in snow and waving his gloved hand. "Let me in!"

This guy did have a knack of popping up at all unsuspecting times. Suddenly it struck her that her mother would be waiting at the departmental store till the snow storm subsided, and Tai was probably shivering outside. She hurtled downstairs.

A gust of cold hit her face like a slap as she pulled open the door. Tai hurried in, and pushed his boots and gloves to a corner. All Mimi could hear was the clatter of his teeth.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Never better," he answered through the clatter.

"So, what brings you here?"

"The storm worsened, and your house was the closest," he chuckled, "And also, I missed your call, remember?"

"Yeah, and that wouldn't have needed such desperate measures. I just wanted to know when you'll return my piano notes and why you possess them at the first place." Mimi spoke dispassionately.

"Uh, you never found them?" he scratched his head, "I hid them under your chemistry book as a joke." Tai smiled sheepishly even as Mimi flexed her knuckles and readied to punch him. "Okay, but then, I ran to you through a storm at just a call!" He dodged the badly-aimed punch, "I'm such a romantic."

"You are such an ass."

"That I am."

"I'll make you coffee."

* * *

Mimi walked with a steaming mug into her room, only to find Tai crumpled on her bed inside her furry blanket. By the looks of it, he was still shivering.

"You alright, Tai?" she was genuinely concerned this time, as she placed the mug on the dressing table and stepped ahead to check. She thought she caught a muffled "Yeah".

She stared at the snoring Palmon beside the heater and waited. Tai slowly raised and leaned against the wall, still cocooned inside the blanket. He grinned weakly.

"You look like an Eskimo," remarked Mimi, pointing at the blanket arched on his head. She handed him the coffee, "Here. Have this. You'll feel better."

"Your room's scary," he said in mock-wonder.

"Deal with it," she flipped the hair out of her face. Her skin accidentally made contact with Tai's and she recoiled at instinct. "Tai, you're burning!"

"Yes, I know. I'm so hot I can barely contain it," he sipped on his coffee casually.

"No kidding, Tai. What made you fool around in a snow storm with this kind of a fever?"

"Chill, Mimi. I'm okay."

But in a few minutes he placed the mug aside and slumped back to the bed on his own. "I'm just... resting a bit," he mumbled.

Mimi sighed dismissively, and then went to the drawer to look for medicines. "You really are a troublesome idiot, do you know that," she said as she flicked through the tablets, then paused on a greyish packet, "Have this." She tossed it at him.

"The red pill or the blue pill?"

"Very funny, Tai. Both will transfer you back to Princess Mimi's scary bedroom."

"And thus, Princess _Meanie_ is back."

"Yes, bow before me, commoner." She laughed.

Tai pulled at her arm so hard she lost her balance and fell on her side next to him. "Now we're down to the same rank, royalty." Mimi wheeled sharply; she thought she heard a snigger down where Palmon appeared to be peacefully sleeping.

"Mimi, who's Delilah?" asked Tai, out of the blue.

Mimi swore if he hadn't been sick she would've killed him.

"How – do you – even –" she found herself stuttering on words. Her collar grew hot. It was a secret she had successfully kept to herself all these years, something that must've been placed innocently at her study and fell into the devil's hands, maybe when she was brewing coffee for him. How could she be so careless?

Her eye bulged at the sight of Tai still holding the bunch of letters inside the blanket. "GIVE THEM BACK NOW, TAI, OR I SWEAR TO GOD –"

He handed them back without hesitation. Mimi snatched them all and stuffed the bunch vigorously into the nearest drawer. "I've read them already you know," he smirked, before he added thoughtfully, "And they were decidedly weird."

"Yes," she stared at her fingernails, embarrassed to the brim, "I'm a creep. I know. But these are old." She stole a glance at Tai, who was finding it difficult to connect the dots. Blushing even deeper, she explained, "I am Delilah. I wrote them to myself. I'm creepy, I get it."

"I don't see how you're creepy at all," said Tai warmly. Mimi rolled her eyes at him. The memories were certainly worse than the paragraph where 'Delilah' explained why the upper half of the continent should be painted pink. She bit her lip, her collar burning.

"The transition to America was bad. Like, _bad_ ," Mimi continued, "I didn't have friends, and I missed the old ones. I was lonely. I was weird. Who would want to be friends with me anyway?"

Tai's burning hand squeezed hers. She broke out of the trance, "Your fever still isn't down, Tai."

But he wasn't listening. "So, you did make friends, right?"

"I did, yes, but I always had my defence up. No one could come close. No one wanted to."

Thinking about it hurt. Tossing aside the schoolbag and slumping onto the sofa with a sigh every afternoon, hurt. A lonely lunch at the canteen hurt. It wasn't as if she never socialised – she did – in fact that was all she ever did. She always socialised, and never really made friends. She probably never _found_ friends.

"Or you didn't let them."

Mimi turned at him in slight surprise. "No, Tai. It's not some fairy tale I'm-so-special-anyway bullshit. I know what people thought of me. Pretty girl. Weak. Shallow. A comic relief, maybe."

Tai clutched her hand tight. She tried to pull away, but couldn't – or rather – didn't. "You could be anything and people will judge you all the same, Mimi," he gave her a piece of his mind, in fact he almost sounded like Gennai, "And those who do, you don't need them. You are a wonderful friend," Mimi shrugged again, and Tai's clutch went tighter, "And when I say it, I mean it. No one had gone out of the way to help me in the silliest of stuff like you had, and trust me, you don't need to pity yourself for your unflinching honesty."

Although she wasn't fully convinced, she rendered him a bright smile. "You have a big heart, Tai."

"Yes, one more reason to get friend-zoned every time," he winked lazily.

"That's because you're bad boyfriend material," giggled Mimi.

"I should've left out that part about unflinching honesty," he mock-grumbled, "But, why so?"

"Okay, let's see," she stared at the ceiling, "Bad haircut. Check. Has attention span of a teaspoon. Check. Never on time. Check. Tactless. Check –"

"Hey, hey, I play soccer. That makes me sexy by default."

Mimi gave out a delirious laugh, "Right."

"Whatever," Tai snuggled up into a pillow, "I like the name though. Delilah. Hey, would you mind if I take a nap here for a while?"

Mimi was certain he was snoring before she could even say yes.

 _And that was Tai for you, folks_. She smiled absent-mindedly to herself, back to the present-day afternoon, staring at the just-received text. He was an ass. He was goofy as hell. And he could bring that smile on her face. The smile that made her giddy and light, while it stung her back and left her confused.

Her phone beeped again.

 _ **Time Square can't shine as bright as you. I swear it's true. ;)**_

He seemed to be on a texting rampage. She buckled up with a reply:

 _ **Yes, yes. I got it. Ha-ha. :'D**_

No wonder she found herself humming this song the entire day.

* * *

A month reeled by and the wind smelled of Christmas.

Kari blew her whistle, holding a weirdly designed digi-egg in one hand and a shovel in another. "Guys, this side!"

Mimi thought how this exercise was so reminiscent of the childhood Easters, except this stuff was darker and dangerous. Nothing too dangerous, though. They had been up on a mission to seek out the hacker eggs scattered throughout the city, and maybe farther. All this to stop the ongoing password riots. (Izzy said something about the hacker eggs being the signal points, or something.) Again, nothing too dangerous, but tedious, yes, to say the least.

Soon, there was a huddle around Kari. Tai stood at a bit of a distance, toying a rock with his boot; the Kamiya siblings seemed to be cross at each other since the morning (Tai looked more perturbed by it than Kari). Well, so cross that Mimi was sure the day would end with a climactic and inevitable shouting match.

Anyway, Izzy confirmed the egg, pulled out the embedded switch and it disintegrated, while the others resumed their search. Mimi's shovel struck something hard too, but it turned out to be a rock. She scowled.

"Any success?"

It was Sora, wearing a noticeable blue woollen cap with dangling lobes, her arms akimbo. Her nose had reddened with the cold. She gave her a toothy grin.

"Let's go over to that side," suggested Mimi, thumping her on the shoulder, "How many are we supposed to find here?"

"I don't know, but I surely caught the word _egg-mine_."

The girls laughed. "Why is that the digimons are having a nice fine snowball game out there while we do all the hard work?" Mimi shook her head in mock-depression.

"Looks like Davis and team have done a great job!" Tai announced meanwhile, so elated he might start rolling down the snow slope, staring at his phone screen, "Almost done guys, just a few left. Good going!" Izzy fist-punched in the air in response.

And then there was Matt at the sidelines, who smiled at the news, but then went back to digging, so detached he looked as if he were digging a hole to hibernate in. But then Tai hopped ahead and stood at the farthest of the circle, appearing to be repelled by the magnet that was Kari.

"Hey, Sora," Mimi decided to nudge upon the topic, "What's up with these two?"

Sora looked over her shoulder at Tai, and sighed. "Yes, I noticed it too. I don't know, Mimi. I tried to ask him but he just shrugged about it. It's weird though. Who would imagine them fight?"

"Yeah, I'm sure it's about something really stupid, like, shoelaces or something."

"They'll be good by the evening," said Sora in a matter-of-fact way, "It's Tai and Kari we are talking about." She stared down at the snow, "And I think I sense an egg."

* * *

In order to celebrate the success of inarguably the sweatiest mission they had in years despite the blistering cold, they decided on sleeping over at Sora's. Another snowstorm was a compelling factor though – which forced Davis, Yolei and Iory to the other side of the city (they finally found respite at Ken's apartment) while Joe opted to be an adventurous crusader with an exam-state-of-mind, taking the jammed subway to return home.

"Did he reach home yet?" Tai questioned T.K, who had been trying to dial up a connection since ages.

"The line's still dead," said T.K, "The storm's aftershocks."

" _Shit_ ," he slumped on the bed, slightly worried, "Keep trying T.K."

"Internet connectivity is pretty weak too," mumbled Izzy, gazing into his laptop.

"Joe could've just stayed. He's got some real time management issues."

"The storm's long gone though," T.K looked out of the frosted window, "And he might've just crossed the river on Ikakumon's back."

Tai gave a nervous laugh, but then realised T.K meant it on a serious note. Anxious and yawning, he wandered into the next room where the rest were dawdling. Matt sat at a corner, as usual, earphones stuffed into his ears and oblivious to the world. Mimi and Sora were engaged in what looked like a really quiet conversation. Kari was at the other end of the bed, reading a book. Except she wasn't really reading. Tai needed to sort their argument out, but something just held him back. _After all_ , he thought _, I wasn't the one at fault._

He had barely entered the room when Mimi spoke out in a rather excited voice, "The pizza guy must've already arrived. I thought I heard the doorbell." She stretched and climbed to her feet, and continued, "Tai, would you mind helping me with it?"

He hesitated a bit, but then he knew he was particularly jobless at the moment, so he nodded and trailed her figure out of the room. The second they crossed the hallway, however, Mimi turned at him so suddenly he almost lost his balance and would've fallen on his arse had it not been the saviour shoe rack behind.

"What happened?" he asked, clutching his heart. She needed to stop being _this_ scary, god.

"Tai, what's the matter with you and Kari?" Mimi counter-questioned. Tai had always known how she sucked at being subtle, but he didn't expect her to come to the point this fast either.

"Nothing," he replied automatically.

Mimi insisted. "Tai, please."

"It's extremely stupid."

"I thought so! And that's one more reason to resolve it. So, please."

He shook his head. "No, Mimi, I can't –"

"She's your sister, and she's upset about it."

"Oh, c'mon, she's hardly upset!" Tai retorted. Like he hadn't been observing her since the morning...

"Rubbish," she reprimanded, "Tell me what has happened."

Tai was sceptical for a while, but then he gave up and hung his head. He finally made the effort to reiterate the particularly messed-up yesterday morning.

"It's just – I care for her, alright – and she doesn't understand. She wants to go to this stupid metal fest or something. It's not even here; it's in a different city. You don't even know what kind of people there'll be and it's dangerous – I mean, she just got into high school! Convincing mum had taken her a month already and now I seem to have ruined everything for her," his voice reduced to a murmur, to a point it seemed he was talking to himself. Mimi caught him saying "she doesn't understand" over and over again.

"Maybe you were too hard on her?" Mimi added cautiously.

"Maybe I was. I guess I was shocked. We've had fights but she hasn't crossed me this way before." He clenched his fists.

"Tai..."

Then he let out his eventual fear.

"I guess she's growing up and I can't handle it. I don't know what to do."

Staring at the floor, Tai felt a warm hand on his shoulder. "Talk to her," she said, before she gave him a light push, "Go."

"But what about the pizza guy?"

"Pizza guy? The only fool loitering outside in this weather would be Joe Kido."

"No pizza? Are you freaking kidding me?" Tai grinned.

* * *

Mimi was elated. Sora's plan worked. Tai was still a bit awkward, but he did walk back to the room. Mimi followed him; she saw Sora shrinking into the corner the moment Tai entered, play-acting to arrange her books. Mimi could bet Tai saw right through them, but he didn't mind. Kari was stroking Gatomon, hinting at her brother to make the first move. Even Matt seemed to be interested now – his earphones were dangling off his collar.

"Kari," Tai started.

She looked up, but didn't say a word. Her face was somewhat stern.

"We need to resolve this, you know," he continued.

"I need my space, that's all I wanted," said Kari, sounding close to tears.

"It's not about the space, Kari. What about the perks –"

"How is it _not_ about the space?"

"Why don't you hear me out first?"

"It has always been about the space!"

Tai looked at her disbelievingly. His temper rose a bit, and so did his voice. "When have I ever stopped you from doing _anything_?"

"Well, now," she snapped, wiping her face vigorously.

"Would you for once try and understand? What have you grown into?"

"What do you mean?!"

"Nothing."

The room filled up with nasty silence. Apart from Kari's relentless sobs and heaving shoulders, everyone else seemed to be too afraid to move. Tai was digging his eyes into the floor. Mimi knew he felt like tearing his heart apart. And he couldn't hold it for long. He made a furious punch into the wall and stormed out of their sights.

"Kari, calm down, kid," it was Matt this time, but Kari shoved his arm aside, and reached out for her overcoat. She walked out of the room towards the hallway. Gatomon trailed her.

"Stay, Gatomon!" she shouted through her tears.

Sora jogged up to her, "Where are you going?"

"Home."

"Kari," Mimi interrupted into her path, "You can't leave. The weather's too bad." Also, this wasn't the way the talk was supposed to have ended.

Kari silently tried to slip past her, and succeeded. She was almost at the door now. Mimi looked at Sora, powerless. They had just made the matters unimaginably worse.

"I'll get a taxi home," she assured the others. Then she left.

It happened so fast. It slid out of control so fast. Everyone was stunned.

"Kari!" Tai burst out of the other room – he certainly had an ear on the noise – and came jogging up to the doorstep, "Where did she go?"

T.K and Izzy rushed to the spot as well. Nobody answered. Tai gave all of them a how-did-you-let-her glare. Then sprinted out in the cold. "Kari!"

He didn't come back for a while. It wasn't long – ten or so minutes probably. Something was biting into Mimi's skin. This catastrophe was a result of their hasty involvement. It was their fault. _Her_ fault. She ran into the lane. The cold was murderous. Trembling, she looked for him, and if she were lucky enough, Kari. She hoped of this being the climax, a reason good enough to realise how much they loved each other.

Then she found him standing on the pavement, barefoot on the snow. Flakes had already clustered on his head. Mimi trotted up to him wordlessly. He looked at her. He was too hurt. Too confused.

"Where did she go?"

* * *

That night was long. It was 3 o' clock, and while everyone gave up one after one, Tai still sat waiting beside the telephone. The lines were still dead, so was the internet. Mimi trotted into the living room under the dim light, and watched him dozing into his arms, settled on the chair. She went ahead to nudge him awake.

"Tai?"

He moved a bit, sleepy. She jerked him a little harder, and he blinked groggily.

"Go to bed," she whispered, "You're cold. She said she went home. So go get some sleep."

Tai stared into the desk, seemingly considering upon a decision, however, he didn't realise he was way too sleepy to make one.

"Tai," Mimi pulled him up from the chair, "Come with me." He obeyed slowly. He was drifting to sleep even as he stood on his feet. She tried to guide him all the way to the room the boys slept, but midway he knocked into the sofa and slumped over.

Mimi sighed in exasperation. She couldn't carry this sleeping baggage to the room all by her herself and he would freeze to stone if he stayed the night here. She fetched her blanket from the room and adjusted the heater. She thought she'd rather share Sora's.

He snuggled into the blanket unconsciously. Mimi smiled. He looked adorable. She felt a certain wave of affection she couldn't describe.

Then she returned to the other room, slightly lost. She sensed her stomach flip lightly at every thought of him she tried to constrain. Him. Why call him, _him._ He had a name. Why such weird thoughts. She forced shut them and tried to sleep.

In the midst of which, the original purpose of going to the bathroom remained forgotten.

* * *

Ergo, she woke up to a rather dull morning with a dangerously full bladder. She stretched for a while, and once the realisation struck, rushed for the toilet. The bed was otherwise empty, and the faint smell of toast could tell that everyone else was probably up and good.

She did the job and wandered into the living room. Izzy was snoozing on the couch, Sora was laying out the plates and Tai was buttoning up his overcoat, ready to leave.

"You're leaving already?" She asked him. She shouldn't be surprised though.

"Yeah," he smiled.

"Wait till breakfast, Tai, it won't take a century I promise," said Sora from behind.

"Hasn't the signal been back yet?" Mimi suggested. She walked over to the sofa, "Izzy?"

"Huh?" Izzy snapped awake, "Oh, yeah, yeah. The internet's up. I could send a mail right now. But we can't make sure she reads it immediately, can we?"

"Gatomon left for Kari early in the morning," Sora told him, "Maybe that could help?"

"Or I can just go home," sighed Tai.

"Tai," Sora came up to him, "Relax. Like, _relax_. And I mean the word, you know. You two are inflating this super-silly fight to ridiculous proportions."

"Hey, cable's up too," said Izzy, trying to make some use of the jammed remote control. Mimi snatched it from him, "You aren't much of a TV person, are you? While I am just in time for the _Glee_ rerun..."

Mimi swore she tried all the buttons but the remote remained to be a permanently useless piece of plastic. She scowled and tossed it aside. The idea of a TV eternally stuck on a news channel devastated her. She moaned, "This sucks."

"Yeah, folks, the remote died a week ago," laughed Sora.

 _'Meanwhile the death toll rose to fifteen with the current weather of the city..'_

"Jeez, would you look at that," Tai exclaimed as the camera panned towards a certain village covered to the brim with snow sheets.

 _'News coming in of a loaded truck sliding on the ice and colliding into the pavement at around 12:30 am last night at Tokyo Bay Cruise...'_

"Good lord, that's so close to my house," Sora commented randomly as she laid down the toasts, "Mimi, can you just kick the Ishida brothers awake?"

 _'... left three dead on spot. As far as we have the reports, the police have identified two of them as Tatsuma Kamenashi and Hikari Kamiya.'_

Wait, what.

Mimi heard it wrong. She did. She knew she did. She _had_ to.

All air seemed to have sucked out of the room. The sound of the TV dissolved into a dull buzz. No, _no_. It couldn't – no. She felt as if being suffocated with a bike chain, her insides churning into a violent mess, making her want to vomit. For a second she calmed herself and looked around: everyone else had frozen at their places. And she couldn't even _dare_ to look at Tai. She couldn't.

She felt the sweat trickle down her forehead. Her eyes flooded and her lips trembled. She couldn't take it in.

There must have been a mistake. It must've been a namesake. It had to be.

She hurtled towards the telephone. The telephone, yes. The lines must be back too. She would call the Kamiya residence and Mrs. Kamiya would tell them how Kari is sleeping soundly in her room. With shaking hands, she held on the receiver and dialled the number.

The line was live. Her heart pounded in her chest. _Pick up, pick up..._

Someone picked up.

"Hello?" It was Mrs. Kamiya.

Mimi thought her voice disappeared. She noticed Sora had turned to her as the last ray of hope against the similar turmoil raging in her head. Mimi took a deep breath, and spoke, "Mrs. Kamiya? This ... is Mimi speaking."

"Yes, dear. I'm so sorry but Tai and Kari aren't available. They are staying over at their friend's house. But I can keep a note for you –"

The receiver slipped from her hands. Sora broke into tears. Izzy stood at the corner in silence. Looking at him felt like being stabbed in the gut.

And Tai. Only if he cried instead.

* * *

 **This Christmas story hasn't ended... so, don't hate me.**

 **Clarification: The second story is set in 2005, and not in 2002, basically when they are in high school (Mimi is a Freshman and Tai is in his second year; basically the year Digimon Tri is set in). I have corrected it now.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Reworked a little bit. You can give it a shot again. Okay, I guess I sucked with this chapter, but I promise there'll be a lot more Michi centric moments in the future. So...Kbye.**

 **Pee Ess: I also happen to have written a Michi wedding proposal out of pure whim on my tumblr account, something I wish to add to this fanfic in some future Christmas story. My username is moodydrabblerwizard, feel free to visit my blog, it"s all digimon.**

 **Oh, and review. Or else it breaks my heart, and I don't feel like writing further. Criticisms are thoroughly welcomed. Don't troll, or I shall troll you back.**

 **Sayonara folks. ;)**

 **Oh and.**

PLEASE DO NOT UNFOLLOW THE STORY. I APOLOGISE FOR THE REPOST, I THOUGHT I JUST HAD TO SHARE. NEXT CHAPTER COMING REALLY REALLY SOON WITH MICHI SHMEXY FEELS. :*

* * *

 **CHRISTMAS 2006, CONTINUED: FIREFLIES**

* * *

She had always been afraid of the thought of death. Once she had dreamt of wandering through the dark New York streets, only to discover her parents dead at a desolated corner. Thrown out there all alone. She had ended up with fits even as she woke up, shivered and didn't eat anything all day. She had been so afraid.

 _Whatever taken, had to be returned some day._

She still was. It froze her blood, strangulated her, and clawed into her insides. More than her own, the thought of others parting ripped her apart. Especially the ones she loved. She would rather hide in a closet. She would rather _not_ fight.

Back when they had to save the world, she had backed off at a time too crucial. She knew she was a _goddamn_ coward, even selfish – if only a kid – but she couldn't help it. She might've even been partly responsible had Tai died that day fighting off Piedmon alone. But unlike him, she could never see the bigger picture. The greater good. And the incessant sacrifices needed to make it.

That wasn't the case now. No saving-the-world business. No sacrifices. Just – simply – death. Death in its raw form appeared out of nowhere, spreading out into an elongated shadow, laughing at the corner.

Kari wouldn't show up ever again. Wouldn't speak. Wouldn't smile; Mimi remembered how Kari's nose wrinkled when she did. She'd no more laugh at Davis' stupidity, no more steal eyes at T.K, no more run to her brother after a soccer win and hug him no matter how sweaty he is.

Mimi cried, crumpled up at the corner of the balcony. The living room was too much for her to take. No one had talked. No one had even moved. Tai was perhaps still staring at the TV screen, blank and lost. He hadn't even reacted yet, and it frightened her to hell to think about the _impending_. It hadn't even been half an hour, and it already felt like a painfully long age.

Just then, a blond boy stormed out of the house and ran towards the lane. Disoriented as she was, it took her a moment to realise it was T.K.

"T.K!" she shouted after him. He didn't respond as he turned by the boundary wall, and disappeared. Given how achingly similar it looked to last night's scenario, she ran after him. She couldn't afford any more unsaid assurances.

" _T.K_!" she screamed again, using every ounce of her energy to catch up with him. And she did.

He stopped, but didn't look at her. He gazed at the ground instead; his eyes were red – redder than hers – and devastated. He probably had just received the news, and was still in a horrible daze.

"Where are you going?" Mimi asked sternly.

Soon enough, their one-sided conversation was interrupted by Matt's hurtling footsteps. He stopped short at the sight of them, panting for breath. Though as disturbed as everyone else, Matt was the only one able to keep his emotions on check. He tried to hug his brother, but T.K wrestled away, slid against the wall to the ground, his head on his knees. She, for one, didn't stop him. She knew what Kari meant to him. Everyone did.

"I don't believe it," he spoke finally, "I don't. _I don't_. She's not – she can't – you hear me, I _don't_ believe it!"

Mimi tried hard to hold back her sobs even as the tears leaked away. A harrowing silence followed. Matt made another vain attempt, this time to pull T.K up. The moment he surrendered, T.K sprang to his feet like a recoiling spring, and began sprinting towards the main road again. Matt followed suit, "T.K!"

"Wait up!" Mimi shouted, short of breath and strength, her legs giving way. She kept on running though.

They halted eventually at the bus stop. "I'm going to her house," he announced without looking at either of them.

Mimi's heart gave a loud, terrifying thud. How running away was _absolutely_ futile on what was a circle. The last thing she wanted to do was break the news of the daughter's death to a mother. She felt sick to the point of vomiting.

Matt squeezed her hand. The raging chaos in her mind must've been evident on her face. He, however, looked apologetic. _Someone had to do the job_ , he seemed to say.

The bus came. She held her breath and climbed on. It was a matter of minutes now. Nobody talked. She dreaded every passing second as the bus sped on.

They were almost there. And.

They were there.

That big, bad, wretched apartment complex. Mimi felt as if she were dragging her feet along, sick to the stomach. If that wasn't bad enough, she just hallucinated Kari in last night's clothes, standing beside the gate.

Except it wasn't a hallucination.

"K-Kari?"

* * *

It was Kari. Mimi would've considered it a ghost (if she believed in them, which were) or a digital imprint that would soon fade away, but no, it was Kari. Mimi had a good, wide-eyed look for full five minutes. It was real, yes. This girl with yellow boots and a pink overcoat and short ruffled hair. She was alive. She was. She _really_ was.

After the surprise came the shock. All of it then, all of the ordeal, was a coincidence? Did they jump into conclusions too soon? But wasn't it too _perfect_ a match? The name, the place, the time – everything? Mimi's head gave a sharp spin, even as T.K went ahead and wrapped Kari into a tight, relieved embrace.

"I knew it, Kari," he said, smiling and yet about to cry, "I knew you wouldn't leave us. Any of us for that matter."

Kari looked at them confusedly, even blushed a bit. Chances were she was wondering what was up with those crying faces.

"What happened?" she asked cautiously, her mind perhaps skimming through a flurry of possibilities.

"I think you're the one who's supposed to explain that," said Matt, his arms akimbo, still stunned and probably a bit pissed.

"I don't understand –"

"Kari, we thought you were dead!" he exclaimed.

" _What_?"

Watching the conversation go nowhere, Mimi chose not to waste more time and iterated the whole thing they saw on the TV. Kari's eyes bulged with surprise at first, but then settled down with some sort of disappointment, as if she had a well rounded idea of what was actually going on.

"I can only guess," she said, "but to think it's all my fault..." She exhaled, and stood staring at her feet, guiltily silent. _That isn't helping, Kari_ , thought Mimi.

After a few long minutes, she gathered herself and continued. "Last night, when I stood at the pavement for a taxi, I knew Tai'd come after me. I decided to hide into one of the lanes. And I did. But then – I encountered a – a thief. I guess that's what he was – he snatched my purse and made for the run. I had nowhere to go, I couldn't afford a taxi and I was too proud to return to Sora's. Anyhow, I walked a few more lanes and knocked on Michiko's door. So yeah, I stayed the night there. I wanted to contact Tai, I really did, but the gods were against me. But I could've never, ever guessed the whole thing could turn into this big a disaster."

So the thief was the victim. Or so it seemed. They should've had waited a while. But they did. They even telephoned. They should've had racked their brains. _Fuck._ Everything was just _so_ wrongly timed. How today would've been infinitely better had Izzy not switched on the idiot box, or had Kari forgotten her school ID home for that one night. But then, life is hardly fair. Peace now, at least no one they knew was hurt. She rubbed the crying young girl's back warmly. "It's okay, Kari."

"It's not okay."

"Probably not, but it's solvable."

"I agree," said Matt, "And you'll need to apologise to Tai for starters."

Kari gasped at the idea of it. It was scary nonetheless, but her mourning brother needed to know. She fished into her pockets only to remember, "My phone was in my purse."

"Here, use mine," Matt reached out to her. With slightly jerky hands, she dialled and held the phone to her ear, and waited.

Then she sighed. "He isn't picking up."

One by one, they tried calling on all the phones, but no one at the other end of the line happened to be in their right mind. It was a bad, bad day. It seemed the only way out now was to go back to Sora's house and build up for an awful shock-reveal. Mimi just hoped Tai would be able to take it. He had gone through enough already.

* * *

"Come on, Kari."

Mimi insisted as Kari hesitated to turn by the lane that led to Sora's house, the one she ran off from last night. She clenched her fists, and made a slow move. It was the second house in the lane. No one was outside. Kari gulped audibly. Then stepped inside. T.K followed her.

Mimi and Matt would've preferred to wait at the lawn but rushed in too the moment they heard a loud clatter of china. It must've had been Izzy, who was closest to the dining table. In fact, all three of them – Izzy, Sora and Tai – especially Tai, looked like they had been slapped on their faces. Finally, Sora broke the deadlock as she melted into a smile, wiped her tears and stumbled across the space to hug Kari. But Kari's eyes were still stuck on her brother; she was yet to elicit a response from him. They all were.

 _Say something, Tai_. Mimi was genuinely worried now. She never liked his fits of anger but right now she could give anything to get them back.

Kari bit her lip, and treaded ahead. "Onii-chan –"

Before she could proceed, Tai pulled up his bag from the sofa and with one cold look at the door, left the place.

This thing was turning really, really ugly now. Mimi felt her stomach leap. Once Tai slammed the door shut, Kari sobbed into Sora's arms. Not the way she usually did, but like a child lost in a crowd, with loud recurring hiccups. All of it was, in one word, awful.

And how Mimi yearned to fix it all.

* * *

Things slid into oblivion soon. The whole incident was kind-of kept a secret; especially from the parents. Amongst the hearers, only Davis had overreacted a bit, the rest forgot it as a tragicomic episode. Tai still seemed a little affected, but the Odaiba Annual Soccer Championships were coming and nothing could possibly go wrong. Or so thought Mimi.

"Fundamentally, the problem will be to get people interested," said Izzy, munching into his sandwich and racking his brains on the cornermost canteen table.

"I still think a _Game of Thrones_ themed project will be a good idea," replied Mimi, sitting opposite him, her lunch almost done.

"Do you have a secret death wish, or do you wish to kill us all?"

"Seems like you've correctly identified the lack in my life."

The discussion – or argument, whatever you chose to call it – was in regard with a certain presentation they needed to prepare for their English class, and Mimi had to (un)fortunately partner up with the nerd. Worse still, they had landed up with the project a week ago; now barely twenty four hours were left and they haven't been able to decide upon a topic.

Mimi thought he opened his mouth again to argue some more, but he shoved the rest of his sandwich instead. She turned to her juice with a big scowl. That was _so_ typically Tai though.

Thinking of the devil, he was there. Almost there, actually, waiting for his lunch tray when his gaze fell on the two of them. The just-eaten lunch did a back flip in her stomach. She expected a cheery wave, but all that came was a slight yes-I-saw-you nod.

"Tai, mind helping us out? We're in some serious fix," called out Izzy.

"Trust me, you aren't getting a good consensus for your _GoT_ hate," snapped Mimi.

"Will you please ditch it?!"

"What did I tell you? I am NOT doing Percy Jackson."

"Percy Jackson won't be doing you either."

"What is wrong with you, Izzy?"

"Literature," he scoffed.

Tai didn't appear interested in their conversation; in fact he chose an altogether different place to sit. He was unusually quiet, seldom nodding at whatever they said (shouted across four tables rather), and never more than nodding. His lunch tray was unusually empty too.

"Do you think Tai and Matt swapped souls?" Mimi whispered to Izzy.

This time though, Izzy didn't find it particularly funny. He exhaled sadly. "He's still on about it."

"On?"

"About that day. That Kari thingy."

"You sure? Wasn't it just a –" Well, she didn't have the right word then. But Tai wasn't of the ones to mope around, and she stuck to her defence.

"No, Mimi," he said, as he watched Tai from the distance playing with his food, "It wasn't just an incident. Wait, you don't know. I'll tell you something he had told me long back. There's a reason why Tai is so protective of his sister. And trust me, it's depressing. "

* * *

"He hasn't spoken a word for two weeks now."

"I heard he hasn't been to his soccer sessions either. Last time he missed his soccer practice was when he had typhoid."

All of a sudden, the old rusted door of the garage at Izzy's backyard burst open and in hurtled Davis in a muddy uniform, panting for breath. He gave the squad a wide, toothy grin and searched for a stray place to sit. "Hope I'm not too late. Is it about the Diaboromons again?"

"Unfortunately no, Davis," said Mimi irritably, before returning to the topic, "So what are we gonna do about it?"

The whole garage went eerily quiet. She heaved another sigh; it was already one hour since everyone got in together – well, everyone except Tai – and the discussion had been mostly recursive and futile.

"Maybe create a fake attack? Well, nothing can stop Taichi-kun to come up and save the city," suggested Yolei.

Izzy raised his eyebrow, "Something more practical maybe?"

"Yeah. Probably something that won't lead to another disaster," said Matt, "Let's just do some plain straight talking, why don't we?"

"Like we haven't tried a hundred times already," scoffed Sora, "He doesn't pick up my calls anymore. Any calls for that matter."

Mimi nodded in agreement. Her mind ricocheted back to a certain text she had received from him three days back when she pestered him to hell trying to get him talking: _**Not now, Mimi**_.

"Well, then we perhaps need the right person to do the talking," Matt replied.

In response, most heads turned at Kari, who was shrunk to a corner chair, aloof and unwilling to speak. She hadn't perhaps listened to anything either. And nor had she stopped blaming herself for the murky situation her brother was stuck in.

"What say, Kari?" T.K nudged her, "Wanna give it a try?"

She played deaf at first, and then shook her head. "It'll be useless."

"One final try?"

"Indeed," added Izzy, rather seriously, "whatever must be done, has to be done fast. We don't want him descending into the Dark Ocean."

"Come on, Kari," said Davis in his loud, cheery, animated voice, while he thumped on her shoulder in an attempt to egg her on, and went ahead to state the obvious, "If anyone can do it, it's you. And if nothing else works, there's always one steaming bowl of ramen that no one can resist warming up to."

* * *

"Tai?"

Kari stepped into the room and bolted the door shut while everyone else watched with bated breath. Agumon was strategically gestured to slide out of the scene. Not everyone had come to the Kamiya residence though, and lesser still remained near the shut door – just the quieter ones (which meant Davis was sent home immediately); too much outside noise could make Tai pull his defence up again.

Plan B was the reason they didn't leave the siblings alone this time: if matters began to get worse, so much as any hint of shouting, then all of them would rampage into the room and dance into a circus (Izzy had said it, probably wasn't supposed to be taken seriously), and make them laugh by any possible means. How far could Tai's depression go, after all?

Almost doubling up with the weight of Sora, Matt and Izzy on her shoulders, Mimi peeked in through the key hole. Kari was still standing against the wall, afraid to proceed. Tai was, however, stoic and a bit stony, looking out of the window as if unaware of his sister's presence. "Don't give up, Kari," Mimi murmured to herself.

" _Onii-chan_?" Kari called out again. Again, he didn't respond. Her spirits began to dampen.

The silence of the room was haunting. Kari stood unmoving at her position, guilty and worried all the same. Mimi could see her eyes glistening a bit. It was slightly unfair on Kari now, but Tai had a point too.

More than a point, it was the pain. So much pain and she never knew. His disposition _never_ let anyone know. And how incident must've had stabbed a knife into an old, bleeding wound. Tai was unbelievably strong, but well, even the strongest do break apart.

"Hey, Kari."

It was him. He had spoken, after a painfully long age. In a tone so warm and gentle it brought a lump to Mimi's throat.

Having almost surrendered, Kari gasped at the sound, as though she imagined all of it. Slowly, she walked up to him. Tai smiled; it was small yet affectionate, and it shattered her down to tears.

"It's okay," he said, rubbing her back as she dug her face into his chest, sobbing uncontrollably.

"I'm sorry, Tai."

"It's alright, Kari," he said, heavy-voiced, while a tear rolled down his cheek against his will, "It wasn't your fault, _imouto_. It was me."

She looked up at him. "What, Tai?"

They stood there – for one delicate moment – against the evening light, and that was when Tai took a deep breath, and bared his heart.

"I was so unable to live with myself. I thought I had done it all over again. Like, I brought this on you _again_. I felt so dead inside. Kari, I'm so sorry. For everything."

"Don't be sorry for being the best big brother in the whole wide world, Tai. Now go give mum a big grin. She had been so upset all this while."

And all was well.

* * *

"Hope you've spoilt Kari rotten by now, big brother," laughed Sora as she balanced her books in one arm while trying to pull open her locker with the other.

"Yes, yes, why not," Tai chuckled, "For the love of God."

Honesty wasn't quite the best policy right then. Sora was spot on; it had only been a month since Tai and Kari mended their differences and he had already accompanied Kari to the fest, and spent all his pocket money to buy her an upgraded camera. Tai sheepishly scratched the back of his head. Meanwhile, Sora got so engrossed into pulling open her jammed locker that she lost the balance and the books splattered across the floor. Moaning almost comically, he began to pick them up. "Why am I _always_ cleaning your mess?"

"Tell that to the time you threw up in my hat," replied Sora, sounding more triumphant than snappy as she was finally able to get the metal sheet apart.

"Girls do not forget anything, do they?"

"Yo, Kamiya, heard you're eyeing that Tachikawa girl?

It was Ryan Hosoya, one of the big time school bullies. Tai stiffened his jaw; the guy's face always invited a punch from his side, however his intimidating frame that right then almost blocked the entire hallway, told him – or anyone for that matter – to keep his burning desires buried. Clearly, Hosoya didn't intend a genuinely curious question.

"I'd tell you because it's your business," Tai replied sarcastically, slamming the locker door shut.

"Was just wondering how you could've landed with such a _hottie_." Hosoya's snarky tone was getting on Tai's nerves. Sora pulled at Tai's shirt and gestured him to move. "Ignore his barking. We're getting late for class."

"Aww, did the hottie ditch you then?" the bully called out even as they walked away. Hosoya's jarhead friends broke into peals of laughter. He continued, "How big of a loser were you, Kamiya?"

Tai paused and clenched his fists. There was only so much he could take. "No, Tai, _don't_ ," Sora warned him, sensing the trouble.

"I'd like to have her too, you know, but she probably is a two-timer slut."

The bully was going to pay for this one. Fuming, he ignored Sora's repeated warnings, made a swift turn and rammed into the big guy, punching him squarely on the face. Hosoya was taken aback for a while, but then he retaliated, grabbed Tai's collar and smashed him against the row of lockers. Sora desperately tried to pull away Hosoya's large body from asphyxiating Tai, but when nothing else worked, joined in the fight with a kick at the big guy's crotch.

Hosoya grunted in pain, lost his balance and collapsed with a loud thud on the floor. Tai didn't let go of his upper-hand opportunity, and mounted on him.

"Say it one more time, and I _won't_ hesitate to break your face," he said as he raised his fist to deliver the final blow, when –

"What is going on here?"

Tai looked up to find a crowd of onlookers the whole fuss had built up, and a rather stern-looking middle-aged figure standing out, closely examining the three of them. Almost instantly, Tai got off Hosoya and stood against the lockers, staring at his shoelaces. It was their history teacher, and they all were probably in serious trouble.

"He attacked me!" Hosoya played victim, all of a sudden starting to groan in pain. Tai narrowed his eyes at him.

The middle-aged man's face scrunched up into a feral boar-like expression as he glared at Tai through his round glasses. Rephrase, it was _he_ who was probably in serious trouble.

"But sir, he provoked us –"

"Silence, Miss Takenouchi. Mr. Kamiya, see you at my office after school. Now everyone, back to your classes!"

The history teacher made for a straight path ahead while the crowd dispersed rather hastily. Hosoya got to his feet and left with a faint snigger. Tai sighed.

"Well, that went well. Charmingly done. You've got a black eye for home and perhaps community service for a week. If you don't get suspended, that is," Sora declared dispassionately, "Not to mention Hosoya escaped without punishment."

"Arghh, God hates me. And he hates me. Out of all people he had to be the one to watch me punching Hosoya."

"Oh, and we missed an important class too."

"Thank you for summing that up, Sora," said Tai bitterly, "At least I can now scratch number 32 off my bucket list."

Sora grinned, "Yeah, that's there I guess. You're our new hero, Taichi."

* * *

Tai turned out to be unusually lucky; he landed up with a boring, tedious job of polishing old trophies and school equipments, like Sora had predicted, for a week. Luckier still, there was no soccer session today, even though he'd miss them for the next couple of days. He spent the two hours after school with consistent yawning, accompanied by a snoozing peon and a rather irritating cat.

Finally, he was let free for the day. He apologised, and sauntered down the empty stairs, his school bag slung carelessly on his shoulder. That was when he noticed a very familiar auburn head of hair across the barren playground, standing near the main gate alone, fiddling with her phone. He sensed his fatigue fade.

"Hey Mimi!"

He had taken her by alarm. Her phone almost bounced up in the air as she jumped in surprise and turned. They broke into a nervous smile.

"Hey, Tai. Where're you off from?"

"Um, er," Tai stammered, pink patches falling on his cheeks, "I've been – off from practice. Soccer practice." He tried to cover up his lie with a wide goofy grin.

Mimi looked at him with a cold, almost bored face. "There was no practice today."

Well, he just forgot that girls were all-knowing, all-encompassing lords, no sarcasm intended. He felt like digging a hole in the ground to hide. Embarrassed through and through now, he sighed. "Yeah. You got me. Got punished today."

"Yeah, I know."

"You do?"

"Yep."

"Uh, okay," he said, as they began walking towards the bicycle stand. For some reason, thought Tai, Mimi didn't seem to be her usual self right then. "So, uh," he continued, "Where've you been all this while?"

"Library," she replied way too hastily, "Trying not to fail the term."

Tai's lip curled into a crooked, knowing smile. Aha, he got her back. "Library closes after school, Mimi."

"Oh. Oh, I was –"

"You were waiting up for me," he smirked.

"No, I wasn't!"

"Yes, you were."

She glared at his shameless smirking, and then surrendered with a laugh. "Okay, okay, I was."

"Gotcha," he winked, unlocking his bicycle. Mimi still appeared to be mysteriously lost in her thoughts, setting off on her own even as he tagged along. He finally ran out of patience and asked, "Is anything wrong?"

"It's what you did," she answered bluntly.

Tai traced and retraced the whole day thrice in his mind to figure out where he went wrong. In fact, this was their first meeting of the day. Maybe something he did yesterday? No, yesterday he had been busy studying for a stupid exam. He looked at her confusedly. "...So, what did I do?"

Mimi looked back in disbelief. "What did you do? _What did you do_?"

"Yeah... I guess?"

"Tai, you punched Hosoya? Were you fricking out of your senses?"

"Not at all. As much as I remember it was a very conscious decision."

"No kidding, Tai," she crossed her arms, "He could've broken you into two, and he just might."

"Yeah, I guess, at least that would've saved me from rubbing all this old stuff clean every day."

"When was the last time you were serious?"

"I am serious. I am very much serious!" He stood on the paddle and gave his bike a slight launch as it carried him all the way ahead and caught up with Mimi, who was angrily trying to walk away with huge stomping steps.

She grumbled through her teeth. "Nothing of what I say makes a difference to you. And all of it for what really?"

"Why are you so mad at me suddenly? You can't expect me to stay down when some retard bullshits about you, can you?" Tai asked hotly.

Her face went blank for a split-second, but then she ricocheted back to her angry self. "Yeah, why not, your fractured skull would've fixed it for everyone."

"I didn't get one though. Holy cow, Mimi, I defeated him, can I get _some_ credit for that?"

She chuckled. "He probably saw the teacher coming right away." Tai narrowed his eyes at her. Then they both burst into a laugh. "I'm so done with this argument," she added.

"Yeah, me too," he yawned.

"That black eye isn't very fashionable either."

"I know, right," he whistled as they walked along the pavement. The afternoon sun was a nice warm respite from the cold. For a while, they found nothing to talk about; Tai went on loudly observing the passing parks while Mimi kept to herself, often replying and at times humming tunes.

"Do you really listen to Taylor Swift?" Tai pounced on a brand new and irritatingly familiar tune she had begun to mumble as they crossed the main road.

"Yeah, so?"

"Yeah so, I am _so_ judging you."

She flipped her hair out of her face with the typical Mimi-chan swagger. "Judge away."

"That reminds me, wanna come shopping?"

Mimi stood staring open-mouthed at him for a whole one minute. "Did I just imagine you say 'shopping'?"

"Yeah you did," he grinned, "I need to get sunglasses. For the black eye, you know. Don't want mum to see it and give me another."

"Hmm," she scratched her chin, "Why don't you just wear your goggles?"

Tai threw them a glance and sighed. "Can't. I tried. The straps hurt."

"Have you ever, ever worn them where they're supposed to be worn?"

"Tried twice," he grinned, "Such bad decisions."

* * *

"Amongst the bad decisions I have taken in my life, _this_ has to be, by far, the worst," Tai grumbled under his breath.

"I just helped you get sunglasses at the biggest possible discount," said Mimi, as she swayed through the rows of dresses, "Some gratitude?"

"I'm already carrying three bags full of gratitude."

"Some linen and a hat aren't that heavy."

"Some?!"

Mimi tried hard to not giggle. "Obviously," she mumbled in a matter-of-fact tone. There were two more stores she wanted to check, but then she pitied the poor guy Tai, his shoulders dramatically drooping with the weight of the extremely lightweight shopping bags. He made the world-has-gone-to-the-dogs face for the twentieth time and sighed, so Mimi sighed louder and took a detour to the counter instead.

"I'm sure you had this in mind long before I mentioned the sunglasses," groaned Tai as he trailed her path, "Tell me the truth, _how_ many people exactly bailed on you before you got to me?"

"Whaaat are you even talking about," she crooned it in another Taylor Swift tune. This was fun; just a page or two out of _Irritating Taichi 101_. As expected, he soon began to resemble a fire-sniffing dragon.

Of course she didn't have this in mind. It was just the magnetic pull of the stores she couldn't defy, given she happened to have her credit card along. She didn't keep him waiting for long either, yielding to his long tired sighs, and within another fifteen minutes they were back on the road to home, licking at their ice-creams.

"Well, this definitely makes things better," he stared contentedly at the brown blob of cream on his cone.

"Sure it does. Thank me."

"You mind taking a break from your dramatic hair-flipping? It's tickling my nose – hey, look, fireflies!"

The twilight was special today. Perhaps the way the setting sunlight fell on the dewy grass. The cold had just started to descend. Mimi was too lost. So much so she didn't even realise when Tai had parked his bicycle against the lamp post, and was tugging her towards what looked like a large sloping grass spot with a bunch of fireflies hovering above.

She had come there before when she was young. It was close-ish to her apartment. But never before had she seen fireflies.

"That's – that's beautiful."

She threw aside her shopping bags and sat on the slope. A bit of the cityscape was visible too. The city with all its glimmering, flickering lights.

"Yeah," said Tai, slumping over on the grass beside her, "Yeah, it's like, poetry in real."

"Have you come here before?"

"A lot of times, yeah. Mostly alone. Sometimes after practice."

"It's, um, very romantic."

"I guess that's why I'm mostly alone," he said with a little laugh, "in fact you happen to be the first person I've brought along."

That little detail made her collar heat up. Tai shut up all of a sudden too, very much aware of what he accidentally implied. He scratched his head, "You know, er, that's because –"

"My house's along the way – yeah –"

"– Yeah right, I mean, yeah –"

"– Hmm."

She stole a glance at Tai. He was plucking blades of grass absent-mindedly, at times looking up at the fireflies. She too pretended to be busy with her phone, although all she did was flick at her wallpaper again and again.

"Mimi –"

"Hmm?"

"There's this – um, something – I want to tell you. It's like – I'm sure you'll be out-of-the-world happy once you hear it."

All this while, all of what she had been trying to hold back, surfaced into her mind with one giant splash. Was he thinking the same? Her heart throbbed. About what all of it added up to? They weren't kids anymore. They had grown up and unexpectedly close. And they were stuck in a complicated, unnamed equation.

Were they best friends now? God knew. Were they something more? Who knew. But he could tell. Definitely. Because she no longer remembered when she fell in love with him. It must've been something to do with his eyes. It was one of the firsts; she had felt old and restless back then. She had liked it when he pulled at her hair, or teased about her hat, or when they had nudged each other laughing at an inside joke.

So yes, he could tell. But for that, he needed to know, _too_.

"Tai, I guess, there's something you need to know too."

Tai turned at her with excited, child-like glee. "Okay, you go first."

"No, you."

"Yeah, okay."

He didn't even put up a fight, he was just too eager to tell the tale. "I asked Sora out for the prom. You know, I'm so happy I can't even process anything, it's like the first step ahead."

And thus he told her all she needed to know.

"Oh. That's great news. I mean, amazing news," she rambled without thinking, "way to go, Tai!" She went ahead and slapped him on the back, her mind at complete sixes and sevens.

Tai mistook her half-blank look as confusion regarding Sora's relationship status. " _Ohhh_ ," he rubbed his face, as if he forgot his keys at home, "You didn't know about it, did you? Sora and Matt broke up ages ago – I mean, seven-eight months to be precise. It was very secretive; I guess the only persons who knew were T.K, Kari and me. And now you too."

"Oh."

"She said yes. For a while I couldn't even believe it," he gazed at the cityscape and smiled to himself; for a second she thought he was a bit teary, "All because of you, Mimi. Hey, aren't you happy?"

"Trust me, Tai. I am very, very happy."

"What was that thing you were going to say?"

"Er," she stammered for a while. Her insides were leaping, and brains shutting themselves down. "Well, er, I was wondering about this as well, you know – the same thing."

She had a clue she wasn't making much sense. Panicking, she turned to her wrist watch instead, "Tai, it's getting late. Must rush."

* * *

 **Aaaaaand this Christmas story builds up to the angstiest one! INCOMING SOON...ish!**


	4. Chapter 4

**WARNING: This chapter is really T-rated. Sexual innuendos, funny mostly. Maybe a good knowledge of rom-coms would do.**

* * *

 **CHRISTMAS 2007: DEBRIS**

* * *

 **25** **th** **December.**

"The mistletoe shall be at the corners."

Mimi looked up with slight, dreamy fascination. "Such sharp witty funny leaves though."

"Oh, they talked to you?" laughed Sora, carrying a jar of baking powder across the space of the living room. It would be her first attempt at a cake and no wonder she had unwittingly been sprinkling the powder all over out of nervous excitement.

"No, it's just, they're so attractive and yet they're so down in the shadows," she said, "You know what I mean, right?"

"Er... yeah?"

"Okay, let's just get back to the decorations."

"Taichi loves the mistletoe."

Mimi didn't quite mind the random comments Sora and Tai often made on each other; they had been together for almost a year now and she had snapped out of it long ago, but what she hated was the violent way her insides leaped every time Tai was mentioned.

So, no, she hadn't snapped out of it yet. She had only been trying to. Circumstances hadn't been too helpful either, but she would come to that later.

Her arms aching, she climbed down the stool and launched herself on the sofa. Yawning, she flipped through the TV channels five times or so, then settled with the one airing _(500) Days of Summer_. Comic, unrequited love happened to be just her thing.

"How... do you even bake this ... thing," grumbled Sora, pale and powdery-faced, staring hard into the instructions. Her hair stood out at odd, frustrated angles.

"Assistance incoming!" Mimi jumped to her feet again and soon found out Sora was already halfway through the wrong recipe.

"Where are the eggs?" asked Mimi, as she scrambled through the ingredients.

"Mum's gone to the supermarket; I thought I can make the mix for the time being. We can always add stuff later, can't we?"

Mimi sighed.

Just then, the door knocked open and, Tai and Izzy emerged with rather large bags and wire coils. Izzy was mumbling something to him, all while throwing exasperated looks at the bright Santa hat over his cuddly spotted woollen one, which Tai must've had surely bought him as a joke and dared him not to take off.

"Afternoon ladies," grinned Tai, placing the bag carefully by the stool, "Something smells good."

"Oh, it's just the vanilla essence," quipped Mimi. Sora looked hopelessly at her.

"Okay, here's the whole Christmas tree kit, and Izzy's got the lights. We should be done by the evening."

"Good to know," Sora came up unexpectedly and gave a peck on Tai's lips. Smirking, he kissed her back.

"Get a room, guys," Mimi groaned, her attention determinedly fixed on the baking powder. Izzy too gave the couple a dispassionate stare, and then laughed, "You two need parental control."

"Well..."

For a split-second, Mimi's eyes met Tai's. She looked away almost instantaneously, feeling his eyes linger. Her collar heated up. As well-knotted as their squad was, she and Tai happened to have slightly drifted and no one had even noticed. Not even Tai.

But then again, they were never what she thought they were. At least from his side. So the assumption was a fallacy.

Sora and Tai had been going smooth; it was probably expected – they had it in them all this time. They were perhaps, as the saying went, made for each other. Sora was the apple of his eyes and Tai was just another of the things Sora had and she didn't. Mimi didn't realise when she was back on her pathetic, self-pitying ways.

Not that she envied Sora. She – okay, it was no use arguing on this line of thought. She did _indeed_ envy her a bit, not with bitterness but only genuine resentment. It wasn't all about Tai. It was just that Mimi had not been good enough to get people to stick around for long. She wasn't sisterly enough. Wasn't caring enough. All this time she could've learnt it all from one of her closest friends but she didn't.

Slightly surprised to find his eyes still fixed on her, she made him a funny face. He grinned but that wasn't the answer he was seeking.

Just a few good afternoons ago she had inadvertently bumped into him at the grocery counter. She had turned, colour flaring up her cheeks at a rate alarming than she would've liked to believe as he offered his signature goofy grin, an earmuff peeking out of the complete mess that was his hair. She needed to stop surrendering to his warm eyes every time.

"Hey," he had said, with an added awkward surprise.

"Hi," she had replied, equally awkward. She had thought she came off a bit indifferent though.

And he had noticed it. Never mind all of that she had spoken about him being oblivious. He had considered for a second, then started, "Umm, so how's it – I mean, how's your ankle?"

"Yeah, working condition," she had smiled. She had looked at the racks nervously, pretending to explore, the purchased packets crunching under her sweaty palm. Tai got his stuff billed too, and for two seconds they had probably stood wondering what the odd loss of language was all about, but then came the push from the back: other people had been in the line as well.

"So, er, well –"

"Yeah –"

"Yeah, see you at school, then?"

"Sure, yeah."

So, that was it basically. It was Mimi who had been trying to drift away. It was her singular effort – ignoring him in the library, walking past him unless he didn't call back, not replying to his texts as long as it's not something important. And the reason behind was the answer she would never let him know. Which was all for the better.

So, yes. He did notice sometimes. She wished he hadn't.

"... And I guess we can regenerate the car batteries for the whole lighting purpose." Mimi didn't even realise Izzy had been speaking all this while.

"Sounds good Izzy," said Sora, who looked like she might've thought Izzy just spoke in Hebrew, "Now..."

"Yeah we get it," Mimi chuckled, pushing her thoughts to the rear of her head, "We are the third wheels you deserve but not the ones you need right now. C'mon Izzy!" And with it she grabbed the back of Izzy's collar and play-acted to drag him out of the room.

"They're gonna get all _bakey powdery_ on each other!"

* * *

Christmas was a relief. Especially since the summer this year hadn't been one of the most pleasant of times.

 **16** **th** **May.**

She had been sleepless that summer night. The weather was bolstering with some sort of humid angst, quiet like the day before a storm. The clouds were scattered about like black blisters. It was probably about to rain.

She twisted and turned on her bed, and then finally sat up. Reckoning her stomach bloated with the delicious seafood dinner was at fault for the discomfort, she decided to walk around a bit. Then found Palmon standing on the window sill trying to take in whatever breeze that blew. It was such an airless, suffocating night.

"Haven't slept yet?" Mimi asked an obvious question.

"Something's wrong," said Palmon, as she looked far into the landscape, "I can sense it."

"Relax, it's just too hot. That's it."

"Yeah, maybe."

"Let's just try getting back to sleep," she slumped back on her pillow, her eyelids itching with the heat.

"Mimi, are Tai and Sora seeing each other?"

As much taken aback as she was at the suddenness of the question, she reacted casually. "Yeah they are, he told me about a week ago. Why you ask though?"

Palmon's reply didn't come soon. Mimi groggily gazed up at the digimon; from whatever she could gather in the darkness, Palmon's expression was an offspring of smug and serious. " _Don't_ you pretend."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know what I am talking about."

"No, I definitely _don't_ ," Mimi turned the other side in an attempt to hide her face, "Good night, Palmon."

"But Mimi –"

She shrugged uncomfortably. "Seriously Palmon if you wanna continue with – "

Mimi stopped her sentence midway; her bed gave an uncanny tremble and she had sprung upright instinctively. "What's going on?"

An earthquake was the most realistic answer. A second tremor jolted her right out of the bed and Palmon against the shelves, accompanied by a thunderous bang. Stumbling, Mimi got to her feet and looked out of the window: what she saw could've made her gladly take on an earthquake instead.

"Oh my god."

Three metal tanks were approaching their apartment complex, smashing the sign boards and light posts on the way. Their artillery arms were swivelling until they fixed their aim at the massive building. Lightning always struck the tallest tree. Their complex stood out _too well_ amidst the flattened line of small vacated shops, and an elementary school. The tanks moved with an odd growling noise, and the two shutters in the front flapped up and down time and again. _Jesus_ , she now realised. They were digimons.

Palmon exchanged the look of breathless terror. But she happened to be the one thinking fast.

"Mimi, run and alert everyone, out of this building now!" the digimon shouted over the noise, before she digivolved into Lilymon with a familiar blast of light and jumped out of the window, right into the arena.

Mimi couldn't afford a second to partner her or even witness the fight for she now had far too big a job and far too less time, and that too if the apartment wasn't blown to bits in the middle of things.

"C'mon," she said to herself and made for the run, starting from her parents' room. There was no _fucking_ way she would be able to save each and everyone who right then slept soundly in their bedrooms.

She bumped into her parents midway. "Mom!" she screamed, her mind at total chaos. They looked back at her, sleepy but alert in their night clothes, surely to have assumed it an earthquake too – something that was a part of the usual staple – but Mimi's nervous, sweaty face said it all. A bated ghost of a scream escaped from her mother's throat.

Her dad was somewhat calmer. "Mi, what's happening?"

"No, listen to me," she said sternly, facing her father who she thought would hesitate lesser out of the two, "Move out to the backyard playground. If you find someone on the way, take them too. Now get going already!"

"But dear," her mother clasped her hand, her face tinged with the concern that always pained Mimi to see.

"We've faced worse, you know that," said Mimi, trying to sound as tough as she could, and with a last glance at them, she left. It might as well be _the_ last glance, who knew. She felt her lead heart sinking as she gathered pace.

Most people had, however, awoken due to the noise, and accumulated in the hallway. It was a stroke of luck; the chances of saving them were now in eligible figures.

"Run to the backyard playground now! The building can collapse anytime!" she ran along the hallway, making her path and screaming at the top of her lungs. "Now! Move!" She directed the crowd towards the stairs, and people moved in shambles, "Do not panic! Move fast! Fast!"

Of course there was panic, but at least things didn't go out of order. Yet. The crowd steadily dissipated from the first floor.

 _Good job done_ , she thought. She now needed to alert the other floors. Lilymon was holding up her end of the deal well, or so she supposed. For how long was the real question.

She needed help. At 2:30 a.m, who would be awake though? She still had to try. Meanwhile, the watchman and the guy who lived three doors away decided to volunteer. Elated, she allotted them the evacuation of the top four storeys. As they complied, she noticed the rubble seeping through the newborn crevices in the ceiling.

Calling help would be too futile, too late a resort. This building could crash on its feet, anytime.

Word-of-mouth moved faster than she did. By the time she squeezed her way into the other floors, people were already rushing down the stairs and lifts. Panicky questions were thrown in the air, so she continued screaming, "Do not hide under the tables! It's _not_ an earthquake! Please, the building can collapse anytime!" She felt as if her throat would soon come apart and bleed.

Mimi took a split-second of break from the rescuing and peeked down. The playground was already jam-packed, unsure of the numbers it could take anymore, but at least it kept the people out of the digimons' eye. On the other side, well, Lilymon was losing.

Lilymon looked injured. The petals on her head were torn and flailing apart, and there were bloodless gashes all over her body. She was low on energy too, gasping and tumbling down once in every while. Mimi needed to partner her anyhow.

But who would check through the rooms?

Any moment of indecision could cost her heavy.

With cold shivery hands, she pulled out her cell phone, and tapped into the call logs. She sensed the panic seeping into her too. Somehow, she typed in a text: _**Help**_. There was no time to compile contacts. She sent it to the first few on the log, never checking who they were.

No, wait. Texting at this hour would be moronic. She flipped into the logs again and made a call. It was probably Tai...

Pick up pick up pick up. No response. She would've been disappointed only if she had expected the miracle. The odds at 3 o' clock at night...

She would've made a second try, but the moment she as much as thought of it, a ball of gunpowder crashed into the wall behind, missing her by mere metres. She ducked at instinct even as the debris splattered at all directions, and her phone bounced out of reach, rolled to the edge of the balcony and tripped over into the darkness below.

 _Damn_. What now. At least she had her head intact.

She raised a little. Two more tank digimons have poured in, and they were very, very aggressive. The building was almost empty now, but she needed to double check the rooms. She cautiously got to her feet again; it didn't matter if she fell in the line of fire, she doubted she would make it till the morning anyway. But nobody else must die.

* * *

"All clear!" shouted the watchman, who trailed behind the neighbour guy as Mimi met them after a round of double-check that cost her half an hour. Surprisingly, Lilymon and the building held on.

Wiping the sweat off her forehead, she sprinted into the front street. Finally. "I'm here, Lilymon."

Soon Mimi found her. There she was, fallen at the corner across the street, in a mangled mess of her pink petals, unmoving.

"No. _No_!"

Mimi was too late. No, she just – no, it couldn't be. Lilymon _couldn't_ have lost.

Verging on a sudden burst of tears, Mimi made for a run towards her partner. It didn't matter right then if a hundred tanks were aimed to blast her into pieces.

Not hundred, but one of them had certainly trampled its way through and blocked her path. Her heart throbbed; its weapons were pointed at point blank – one at Lilymon and the other at Mimi herself –planning to blast them together. Mimi stared into the metal snout, right at her impending death. She never thought how fragile it all was. A castle of cards was all it was. The machine growled.

And it was over.

" _Nova blast_!"

Probably not yet.

A huge ball of fire bombarded the tank to shreds before it could shoot. Mimi bit her lip so hard that she suspected she might've had chewed it off. She looked sideways; far into the streets she could see Tai and Kari racing towards the enemy. A teardrop rolled off the bridge of her nose. _Hope_ had arrived, finally.

Tai gave her a reassuring nod. "I got this, Mimi." At once, she left for her partner.

Mimi fell on her knees beside the fallen digimon, a kind of dread strangling her neck. With jerky hands, she reached out for her, her heart thumping against her chest so hard it might've even broken a rib or two. All she wanted was a response – a twitch, a spasm, a nod – anything. "Lilymon?"

Lilymon budged, and smiled weakly. "Mimi."

In spite of herself, Mimi smiled back. "Us against the world, and we won."

* * *

It was almost morning. The others had been telephoned by now, and the few remaining tanks were left running helter-skelter against a mega-level like Wargreymon, so the situation was practically under their control. Mimi sat on the heated, prickly road with one giant sigh. Lilymon had devolved to rookie, and rested against her back with short tired breaths.

Just then, the pillars of the building began to rumble. _Shit_ , Mimi had almost forgotten about the inevitable. Chunks of concrete were falling apart, thrashing to the ground with gigantic thuds. There were only minutes before the whole building collapses on its feet.

Mimi supposed she should go check at the back once to see if everyone was alright, but she had already entrusted Kari and Gatomon with the job. Instead, her eyes caught a huge chunk of cement – the whole of a balcony, in fact – hanging dangerously by a water pipe. And standing right under it was Tai, unaware.

"Tai, move!"

He couldn't hear her over the noise. Oh, no. _No_.

"TAI!"

What happened next was a blur; she ran across and leaped into the air – probably got the chance to push him aside – but something struck her head, and with one shot of agony the world snapped into black.

* * *

 **25** **th** **December.**

"I really, really need to rent an apartment."

Tai expected his tone of tragic depression will at least make a few heads rise, but everyone seemed just so engrossed with their works – which basically meant Sora was trying to bake a cake ("I will do it, and I'll do it alone!"), Mimi was flipping through TV channels since her help was refused, and Izzy was doing – whatever he was doing – with the circuit of the inverter.

"I _really_ do need to rent an apartment," Tai tried again, slightly scowling.

"What happened to your dorm room?" asked Mimi.

That question was a bit icky to answer. "Well," he began, clearing his throat but went ahead to mumble, "Well, er, turns out – uh – my roommates are gay." She sniggered and he blushed.

"You mean, they do weird things in front of you late at night when you're trying to get your pent-up college assignment done?"

"Yeah, thank you for summing that up, Izzy." Tai replied sarcastically. "So?"

"So I'm just going back to what I was doing," Izzy began coiling up the wires again.

"Yeah, and I'll just be watching Tom and Summer play the penis game," added Mimi, struggling with a poker face. Soon enough she had to transform an escaped laugh into a bout of showy coughing. Tai grumbled louder.

"So no one's interested? I mean, this is ridiculous, I can't pay for a whole apartment, I need someone..."

"You can't pay anyway unless it's a charity home. You're broke," scoffed Mimi, "Here, you go again, _penis_!"

Tai gazed at her, confounded and scandalised. "Would you mind lower your –"

" _Penis_!"

"–Oh, who am I trying to even..." He sighed dramatically, and then narrowed his eyes at her, but she was instead staring into the TV with an impish, smug look. The sunshine glossed over the auburn sheen of her hair that popped out of her cap and dangled against the sofa's back. She had this rare, wintery flush on her cheeks... and Tai had no _fricking_ idea why he went on observing her this way. Maybe, it was because of what she had gone through, all this year. Maybe because she had saved his life.

"You can ask Matt actually," said Izzy, "Plus, Matt's hot and you'll get all the –"

"What? _What_ , exactly?" he snapped this time. Mimi burst out laughing.

"Okay, sorry, sorry," she gulped in, "Continue, you two."

Tai raised his arms in the air out of frustration. "Okay, I'm not getting a roomie and now I'm the butt of jokes! I mean, _what the_ _f_ – why can't we talk instead about that curly-haired girl from your CS class who smooched you?"

Mimi gasped. And Sora gasped along, no more capable of pretending to not listen to the conversation. "Izzy?!"

Damn. That was exactly what Izzy had told him _not_ to do that day. "Um," Tai grinned nervously, "You know, she was like, whispering in his mouth, rather." He had no clue whether he meant it as an added joke or a really patchy cover-up, even as he stole a glimpse at the nerd whose face had almost bypassed maroon by then.

"This – is – sensational," Sora uttered each word with deep thought, "You sure it was Izzy?"

"Yeah," said Mimi, "like, our Izzy?"

"Oh, shut it, will you," Izzy barked hotly, "And _you_ , mister, are dead."

Tai rubbed his nose sheepishly. "Yes, and now I'll disappear from your sight and go to the backyard and appreciate the snowflakes."

* * *

"Is he still mad at me?"

Taichi leaned against the door and watched Mimi and Mrs. Takenouchi prepare the lasagne on the big platter. The place had puffed up with a delicious mix of smells and the living room population had moved on to the balcony for the decorations (apart from Matt, who had just arrived and was strumming his guitar, deep in what looked like existential crisis.). Mimi returned Tai that smug, impish look again. He groaned, "If you get started with randomly screaming the male organ one more time..."

"He'll be okay as long as you stay out of his range of vision. And by the way, what's _her_ name?"

"Oh, I don't know," he said, and ushered Mrs. Takenouchi to allow him dice the vegetables, "I bugged him so hard but he just didn't budge."

"Good for him, really," said Mimi, and with it accompanied her infamous hair-flipping.

"You know, it's great you kids still hang out together," remarked Mrs. Takenouchi, as she signed off with the lasagne and moved on to the cookies, "I wish I could've got this kind of friendship, and it's commendable, and you know what – I'll just get the flour carton."

His insides danced in gratitude towards Mrs. Takenouchi even as she so much as passed by the kitchen door: she made the perfect opportunity he wanted to seize, and that too while leaving the things on the right string. He took up a deep breath, and came up to Mimi, just behind her, the knife still in his hand.

With the glint of its thicker edge right by her neck, he whispered into her ear. "What's wrong, Mimi?"

"Whoa," she jumped as expected, and sent the napkin flying, "What's wrong with you, _psycho_!"

Well, that wasn't the purpose he was seeking, but a little added-in joke could never hurt. He smirked. "No, but seriously, what's wrong?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, well, we're talking like this after ages. What's happened lately?"

"I'm not sure I'm following you."

"Yeah? Thing's that you've begun to ignore me lately," he blurted out. He never meant to ask in such a complaining manner. Cursing himself, he tried to reframe it. "I mean it was okay all summer, and then suddenly – I don't know, did I do something? If I had, then I'm _really_ sorry."

At this point, Mimi was looking out of the window. There was certainly something, something wrong.

"Trust me, Tai, you haven't done anything. You're just –"

"Yeah, what?"

"I don't know," she shrugged, "Imagining things lately."

"You know you aren't a very good liar."

She began to trot towards the refrigerator. "It isn't thaaaaat."

"Ugh, then what? Tell me what I did! Did I swallow up your piano notes, or sat on your keychain, or maybe mixed up your laundry? What is it?"

She couldn't help but grin. "You're such a dork."

"Please, Mimi."

He knew there was definitely something manufactured about her grin. So he did what he usually did to get things out of her; he gazed long into her eyes and waited. It made her a bit uncomfortable, and to some extent, him too – until she exhaled and stared back with a grim finality that might just throw up the answer at his face.

She tucked her hair behind her ear. "Well, I..."

"...Yes?"

It was then an irritatingly loud doorbell buzzed its way in and broke the deadlock.

"I'll just go check the door." And with that, she escaped.

The kitchen air was now an odd mixture of lasagne, cookies, anger and disappointment. Trying to simply disregard the whole conversation out of his head, he sauntered through the hallway and slumped onto the sofa, right beside Matt's guitar.

"What happened, bud?" Matt elbowed at Tai's arm casually.

"Nothing," snapped Tai, "Isn't this word cool? _Nothing_? It means there's something but I'm not telling you but there's definitely something going on and you gotta figure it out on your own – oh, but don't dare ask me because I said _nothing_!?"

"Whoa, cool down, Tai. Wanna biscuit?"

He shoved his face into his palms, grumbling. "Of course. Hey, there was this thing I needed to ask – would you want to rent an apartment with me?"

"My dad's out most of the time," said Matt, "And I've got the whole apartment on my own. Why will I need to rent one?"

"It's just, I need a partner. Can't pay on my own for the whole thing."

"Hmm," Matt thought for a while, and then came up with a cautious suggestion. "You can live with us, you know. Our apartment's big, you can rent a room."

Tai nodded. "I can ... actually think about it. Thanks, Matt. Oh, and no sex, okay?"

Matt raised an eyebrow wondering if he heard it right, then went along with it. "Okay. It'll be hard but, okay."

Tai chuckled. "So, when's the band tour?"

"There's no tour unless they stop asking me to dye my left eyebrow pink."

"Yeah, you'd need some advice from the pink expert," he laughed, but then the kitchen conversation made a ripple in his head and his cheery disposition flipped a total 180, "You know what, screw it. Because she'll just say it's _nothing_."

"So you fought with Mimi," concluded Matt, "What happened?"

"Oh, nothing really. Jesus, did I just say _nothing_? Why I am using – why does this word even exist? Screw this, screw this, and screw this -"

"Tai, have some water. You're going crazy."

"Really, am I –"

"Merry Christmas, guys. Having fun, eh?"

Tai glanced up to find a young man in a shiny yellow overcoat and matching blond curls to go with, standing at the hallway, grinning at them. Two steps back was Mimi, her expression a muddled mix of embarrassed and apprehensive with a pinch of happy. The person looked familiar, but it took Tai a few long seconds to pull him out of his repressed childhood memory.

"Michael?"

* * *

 **18** **th** **May.**

She blinked as the bright sunlight pinched into her eyes. At first it was a bit blurry, but then emerged the Kamiya siblings dozing on chairs on either side of her bed and a room that didn't quite resemble her own. She tried to get up but a searing pain shot up from her left ankle even as she so much as moved her leg. There was no use trying to raise her head either; the turban of bandages weighed it down like Titanic.

"What's going on?" she squeaked, and flicked at Tai's finger. Alert as he was, he jumped awake.

"Mimi! You – you woke up," he began, slightly neurotic, "I'll just go tell the others."

"Wait a minute, Tai. What's going on, I mean, what happened?"

"Hmm?" he seemed a bit disoriented. Possibilities were he hadn't slept since a long time. It took her a while too to get the hang of her surroundings; she realised it was the much familiar Kamiya residence.

"Have you slept?" Mimi asked him.

"Yeahhh, I mean, not really," he rubbed his groggy eyes, "You were unconscious for a day, so we took turns to watch you."

"Oh."

"It was your mother, Mimi. She was such a crying mess, so we had to force her to sleep, and start taking the turns."

Her insides gave a nauseating, guilty churn. Every time, every _fucking_ time, endeavours of avoiding trouble brought about some more.

As for Tai, he looked okay. There was a bandage on his left arm, and a trickle of dried blood on his temple (it was obvious he hadn't actually budged anywhere from this room all this time). His eyes, sleepy as they were, hid a kind of fear – the fear she saw last Christmas when the TV told him Kari was dead.

"You hit your head against a brick, and broke your ankle," he continued, "So far as I know."

"At least I'm alive," she laughed weakly, but all it came from him was a slight shudder.

"You didn't need to do that, Mimi."

"Tai..."

"You saved my life. But I would've never forgiven myself if –"

"Tai, don't you go on blaming yourself again –"

"Okay," he sighed. "What's done is done. And I owe you my life."

"It's okay, Tai. I'm not a hero. I just did what I thought was the right thing to do."

She knew he wasn't convinced, not even a teensy bit. He rendered a gentle, affectionate and perhaps a little pensive smile – and then reached out to kiss her forehead. Her stomach leaped, and her head couldn't stop treading into the territory her mind desperately forbade her to visit. A good battering with a brick didn't change a thing.

"Sora and Matt are outside. I guess I'll just send them in," he said, "Oh, and another thing. You are staying here until you're fit and jumping again."

"Tai, no, I certainly can't –"

"You've no choice, Mimi. I'll bring you breakfast."

Well, there had to be an amazingly sadistic God. The last thing she wanted was to stay forever at the house of the boy she was trying to get over.

* * *

 **I must be crazy (and an insomniac) to prioritise this over my assignments and social life.**

 **Okay, for anyone who hasn't watched (500) Days of Summer, Mimi was referring to a game that Tom and Summer play in a public park, where they compete on who can utter the word "Penis" louder than the other.**

 **Since the story moves back and forth, I've mentioned the dates so it's more comprehensible.**

 **So, there's that. And the story continues.**

 **And.**

 **Review. Yes. Please.**


	5. Chapter 5

**CHRISTMAS 2007, CONTINUED : DRUNK IN LOVE**

* * *

 **25** **th** **December.**

"Is it just me, or Michael puts too much gel in his hair?"

"Just you, Tai."

The Christmas gathering this year felt like a ridiculously dull dud, or maybe it's just Michael's gelled blond hair sucking in all the sheen. As far as Tai could go down his memory lane, Michael used to be a pleasant company, but back then he hadn't quite picked up this creepy habit of sticking girls up against the wall while talking to them, or bringing champagne to a party where most are still underage, including _er_ – him.

"It's probably the accent. Doesn't the Americano thing distract you?" he asked Sora earnestly, who was standing by him, her head against his shoulder as she picked the anchovies out of her pizza slice.

"I think I found it pretty shmexy. Look at them talking; they've been all over each other all this time! Seems like someone's found _lovvvve_ ," she swooned at the corner where all Tai found was Michael blocking Mimi's way like a giant gelled-blond yeti.

"Mimi and Michael? Nah. Mimi's just stuck there out of politeness," Tai struck it out casually.

"Oh, c'mon, shmexy blond crush returns after a few years all grown up and hot? Sounds like a love story to me."

"A _Mills_ _and_ _Boon_ one, though."

"Still a love story."

"Wait, Mimi had a crush on _Michael_?" Tai raised an eyebrow. Casually, again.

"Uh, I don't know. I guess."

"You don't guess these things."

"Wait, I'm sorry, but I think that's all you can actually _do_ about these things."

"Doesn't look that way to me," he asserted. For some weird reason, he began to sense a conscious necessity to be casual every time he commented on this.

"Will you look at those cheekbones!" Sora joked aloud.

Tai shot her a dispassionate stare. "Hi there, Sora," he rolled his eyes so hard they might've had turned inside out, "this is your boyfriend Tai, speaking."

Sora chuckled. "And that cute tushy too."

"– And it turns out we're checking out guys together."

"Aww," she pinched his cheek, "you're cute too."

"Such consolation," he grinned, "my dead heart probably just sprang back to life."

All before his eyes inadvertently caught Michael again. _Ugh_ , Tai gritted his teeth, _could he be more desperate_. And, Mimi, well, she didn't look all that charmed, did she? He gritted his teeth harder, probably got all the enamel off. What was up with him? Nothing, nothing. He was just being protective. That was it. He wouldn't want Michael to run his fingers up and down her sleeve and then break her heart.

"... And then they actually ended up watching the movie together," Sora said, happily unaware, "And also, I wanted to talk about us, you know."

The statement did distract Tai enough from that annoying distraction.

"What about us?"

"Don't get your eyes so big and wide, it's scaring me!" she half-laughed.

"And why do you think your I-want-to-talk-about-us thing is not scaring me?!"

"Okay, okay," she raised her hands in surrender, "I was only saying, you know, it's a little bit weird."

He sighed. "I know."

Tai tried not to steal a glance at Matt, who watched the crowd, as serious as ever, carefully tuning his guitar at a corner, or just play-acting to avoid conversation. Who knew he probably wished to raise his guitar up to block out all the female attention pointed at his face. A look at him and Tai felt a sensation - like a stake going through his heart, more or less. Damn guilt. Had Matt always been like this, or had he taken away the one thing which kept him happy? Tai couldn't decide. Maybe he didn't know him as well as he thought he did.

"Well, I'm happy," said Sora, trying to get his hopes up.

"Are you?"

He asked it with an unprecedented weight that almost knocked Sora off, as she bit her lip and paused. Then cleared her throat and replied. "Are _you_?"

"I ... don't know."

"You know what, Tai, I think I'm gonna need a new answer next time." And with it, she marched off.

* * *

"Michael, what you're trying to say is ridiculous!"

"But why, Meems?"

"Because it is!"

The competition between the decibels of their argument and of the songs on the loudspeakers grew so relentless that they had to shift themselves to Sora's room. Right then, all the happiness she felt (which was a pinch to begin with) slowly transgressed to irritation with each word he uttered. And not the Tai kind of irritation, but the one that compelled her to literally bang that bronze flower vase on his head.

"Look," he placed his hand on her shoulder. He had this irresistible velvety singer-like voice, and Mimi wished he hadn't used it as his artillery, "You know you can't get what you want if you stay here."

"I have everything I could've wished for."

"Don't give me some crappy romantic line, Mimi." He smirked. Shamelessly, if she should say so.

"Michael, thank you for coming, and if you know what I've gone through all this year –"

"That is the exact reason I'm telling you this. You and your parents have been living in that smallish apartment ever since your house blew up. You have to travel miles to get to your school every day, and the biggest thing of all is, this place is dangerous!"

"What d'you mean?"

"What do I mean? You're asking me this after your building blew up?"

Mimi stared at him, flabbergasted. "I can't believe you're saying this. You are a Chosen child too, Michael."

Michael cleared his throat. "I guess I've lost faith in these things, Mimi. Guessing they attack the very people who try to save them, you should too."

Mimi wished he hadn't made sense. She flicked out of the daze and continued, "No, Michael. I cannot go back to America."

"Why not?"

And there was this answer she didn't want to give.

The song outside felt like a throbbing against her ears. Michael waited for a while, then ran his fingers through his hair and went ahead to stare out of the window. "I don't know what's stopping you, Mimi. I just wanted to help."

"Yeah, you wanted to help?" Mimi sensed her temper rising this time, "Then why arrive half a year later? Where were you when I broke my ankle and had a brick to my head and my parents didn't have a place to stay?"

"Mimi –"

"Yes? Where were you when I was struggling through my PTSD? Was it you who gave up the thing you loved the most so you can make sure I'm okay?"

"I know you –"

"No, you weren't. And I'm not leaving him now –" she said _him_ , she shouldn't have said _him_ , "– them now."

The universe was suddenly empty and all she could sense was the heat against her skin. After a century of silence, Michael relented. "Okay, whatever. But I'll be waiting for you to change your mind." And he briskly walked across the space and slammed the door.

Mimi sighed. The conversation was oddly satisfying. She looked at her reflection in the dressing mirror. She had certainly got better than the mess she was last summer. She still had a long thin shining scar right beside her hairline. At least the eye bags and the insomnia were gone. Another long sigh and she wondered whether she was too tired to return to the party.

"Wind chimes?"

She found him in the reflection, leaning against the doorframe. "Hey, Tai," she mumbled, "Whatcha doing here?"

"Just wandering," he absent-mindedly traced the lining on the floor with his shoe, "Actually, Sora and I had a little fight."

"Oh. You okay?"

"Yeah, good enough. You?"

"I'm all good. Why you ask?"

"Nothing, you're just standing against the wall in an empty room, so I thought... Hey, are you grounded?"

She chuckled. "Unlikely."

They reverted to observing wind chimes and tracing the floor lining for the next long couple of minutes. Awkward was an understatement; Mimi probably needed a whole new word. She nervously bit her lip and tried to break the ice. "Hey, remember this song?"

Tai concentrated on the loudspeakers. "Yeah, Eric Clapton. I remember." He smiled.

"I loved that night, you know." She blurted out. Honestly, she did. Heat gushed from her neck even as she fanned herself with her hand. That night was no big deal, and they agreed on that. Didn't they?

"Yes, yes. Everybody loves dance lessons at 3 a.m at night."

Mimi narrowed her eyes at him, grinning despite herself. "You remain an ass."

He gave off a mellowed-down version of his signature smirk. "Oh, c'mon, you know you love me."

"Ha, you wish." Butterflies and disorientation. She needed a drink.

"Life sucks, Mimi," he said all of a sudden. Tai wasn't the kind to get dejected over a two-worded argument; something was bothering him, and he was slowly letting his guard down.

Mimi didn't want to see it. No more of the unguarded Tai, no more of his vulnerabilities. She was trying way too hard to fall out of love with him and she deserved at least a miniscule of success.

She squeezed his shoulder, and then rested her forehead against it. As much as she didn't want to believe, it felt like a poignant moment of solitude from the rest of the world. As much as she didn't wish to let go, she did. "I think we should go back to the party."

But Tai shook his head. "There's a coffeehouse two blocks down. Wanna go there?"

A miniscule of success meant to try and avoid even looking at the coffeehouses and ice-cream parlours. Mimi blinked confusedly, waiting for a normal reaction to spasm out.

"Huh? Okay, sounds good," she nodded.

Damn.

* * *

 **20** **th** **May.**

Fear. Destruction. Death. They seemed to be appearing in cycles every night.

The nightmare again. It was gnawing her from the inside. She sat up on the bed, stifling a sob. Sure she had seen worse, but something about this affected her more. Was it about Lilymon almost getting killed? Was it the splattered pieces of concrete, some kind of cruel metaphor her mind was playing on itself? She didn't know. She ran her fingers over the stitch near the hairline as a white-hot bolt of pain seared through her head. She stifled another sob.

Seconds later, there were hurried footsteps at the door.

"You okay?" It was Tai in his funny blue frog-printed pyjamas, blinking in the darkness. This was the third night she had woken him up. She must've had been screaming again.

"Mimi?" he came to her bed, rubbing his groggy eyes, "You okay?"

She tried hard to nod. His tousled hair sure looked funny too. She tried to lighten up at the thought. He held her hand in his. His voice was soft. "You want me to stay with you?"

"Y-yes."

He sat beside her. At war with the thoughts in her head, she snuggled closer to him, her head on his chest. He wrapped his arms around her. For a while, she focused on basking in the warmth of the new-found security. Quietly listened to the beating of his heart. Inhaled the deodorant smell he still had on him. After all, this pain was a much sweeter pain.

"Tai..."

"Shh, don't talk," he whispered, "Try going to sleep."

"My parents, they're okay, right?"

"They're fine. You wanna talk to them?"

She shook her head. "I'll call them in the morning."

"You want me to sing?"

She smiled, the tears still leaking from the corners of her eyes. "Where's Palmon?" Her head throbbed without warning again.

"It's okay, the gang said they wanna watch stars or something. They're on the roof."

"Oh."

"Now try to sleep."

"Alright," she mumbled, "Please don't leave though."

"I won't. I promise."

How she wished that was it.

Some nights later, she sat upright again. Stuff reappeared in cycles. She kept on scratching over the stitches. She looked around – she had crumbled and crunched the blanket into balls, her hair sure was a depressed frizzy mess, and she couldn't remember if she had done anything productive the past few days. However what struck her eye was the big lone chair at the corner – and Tai rolled up and wrapped in a blanket, sleeping soundly.

Before she could wonder how he fit himself into that chair, a pang of guilt bolted through her. She was falling, and she was taking him down with him. As much as it procreated complicated discussion in her head, she could analyse how much he was giving up for her. And she couldn't do this to him, not anymore.

She couldn't sleep. Instead, she stared at him. She considered waking him up and asking him to return to his room (he was expecting sore muscles tomorrow anyway), but as soon as she so much as moved, a whimper escaped her throat. Bad, _bad_ ankle.

Tai blinked awake so unexpectedly it frightened her out of wits for a second.

"You okay?" he let out a hoarse whisper.

"I'm okay, Tai. What're you doing here though?" she asked. Curiously, if she must add.

"Oh, I – I – well, my room was too cold."

"Oh. Okay."

"Can't sleep, huh?"

"N-uh."

"Yeah, me neither."

"Hey, is that someone blasting their loudspeakers 3:00 a.m at night?"

Tai tried to listen. "Not really blasting or maybe the person's four blocks away. The music taste is good though."

"You think?"

"Uh, yeah?" Tai raised a sceptic eyebrow, "This is Eric Clapton. Come on!"

Mimi pouted. "It's sweet, but never really heard of him."

"You know you should really, really move on from Taylor Swift."

She grinned. Then remembered she required to talk to him about the moving-out thing. "Hey, listen, Tai, I think –"

"Hey, you wanna do something?" He sat up excitedly, even as his chair made a weird creaky noise, "Let's watch a movie."

"What?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun. Squeaky, past-midnight horror, maybe?"

"Huh, okay," she rubbed her chin, "but how am I supposed to go to the living room? The crutch is gonna do a lot of click-click to scare the living daylights out of other people sleeping in the apartment."

He jumped to his feet, grinning wide - or maybe, gloating wide. "No worries. I'll carry you."

"Yeah. Right."

"So, you don't think I can carry you."

"No, I think you bruise like a peach and you'll break your back if you try."

"Hey," he whined, "I'm the sexy soccer player."

"Oh, no no no. You're the skinny one who runs too fast and never gets a haircut."

He stood for there for a while, surrendered and arms akimbo. "Sass and hair-flipping and feeling bad about myself? Yes, a conversation with Mimi Tachikawa."

She fell back on her pillow, laughing, as he tiptoed across the carpet, slid past the snoring Palmon and halted at the bed. "C'mon, here."

"What are you _doing_?" She knew it wasn't the appropriate emotion, but she felt panicked.

"Stand on my feet and I'll walk you to the living room."

"We can try that," she proceeded to do as told; even as a thrill ran down her spine when her cold toes made contact with his warm skin. "Ow, ow," she gasped, as the pain in the other foot pulled her down to reality.

"Don't put pressure on that foot," he advised, "and hold on to me." And he tried to balance them and move.

"You know, try not to kick Palmon awake," she chuckled.

"We're dancing," he said, "technically."

"You know, we should rather dance, coz it'll be morning by the time we make it to the door this way."

"You're goddamn right. And you have Good Samaritan neighbour and Eric Clapton."

"Yes," she giggled, "And I'm weightless, apparently."

" _Oh, my darling, you look wonderful tonight_ ," he sang along the tune and went on to imitate the guitar solo. What a dork, she chuckled.

For a split-second – she was sure it was a split-second and her mind only elongated it – he looked into her eyes. The light was dim, the mood was right, so right – and maybe it happened because none of them spoke – they swayed along the song, and while she forgot all about the pain...

She kissed him.

It wasn't long. It probably didn't even last long enough for her to know whether he even kissed her back – maybe he did, maybe he didn't. He didn't let her go though, but perhaps that was because she would fall if he did. He didn't speak, he just breathed in and out in bated nervousness, as all the air was sucked out of the room.

She spoke first. "I guess, I guess, I –"

"Yeah –"

"– I was just trying to say thanks –"

"Oh, oh yeah, that's okay –"

"– Yeah, means nothing –"

"–Yeah, nothing at all. No big deal."

"I guess."

She could only guess.

* * *

 **31** **st** **December.**

It was supposed to be a warmish night in with Tai trying to get the hang of his unfinished project and Kari searching the DVD rack for an appropriate one to watch and celebrate the New Year's Eve, when his phone buzzed with a message.

' _ **Grrrr... Help me.**_ '

A not-so-manly giggle came out as he read the text. It was Mimi. He typed.

' _ **Why, what's up bruh? :P**_ '

' _ **Stupid partayyy. Come and save me. Ask Izzy, he knows.**_ '

' _ **As if I don't have a life. B-)**_ '

' _ **Ugh. You. Useless. Ugh.**_ ' Tai could almost visualise the flailing of arms and the scary mad flipping-flapping of her hair. He grinned to himself.

"Hey, Kari," he called out; as his sister looked up from the Harry Potter DVD set she had been ogling at for the umpteenth time. She raised a bored eyebrow, "What do you want?"

"Cover for me, will you? I'll be going to Izzy's. Need some references for the college thing," he scratched the back of his head.

She smiled smugly. "And where will you be actually going?"

"To Izzy's." He said mechanically. An almost-perfect poker face helped.

"Yeah, lie to me. Great way to start a new year," she crooned, engrossed in her DVD collection again.

Tai sighed. "Look, I don't know. But I'll tell you, okay? And you know what, next weekend you might land up with some new rechargeable batteries, a butterscotch sundae and a look around the city on my football tour bus, what say?"

She tried to hold onto the smugness, but could barely contain the glee. "Okay, I'll cover for you. You better write all that stuff down, and do not bail on me."

"Cross my heart," he winked at her, collecting his overcoat and earmuffs, "C'mon, Agumon. And Kari, get rid of those glasses. What are you, eight?"

Kari flushed into a deep shade of red as she self-consciously took down the Harry Potter replica, then fired at her guffawing brother with a pillow. "Go away!"

* * *

The atmosphere was steamed with the faint smell of fireworks. It wasn't too cold as Tai and Agumon raked through the snow and climbed one after another over the fences at Izzy's place. Tai looked around to see if anyone was peeking, but then he had climbed over these homely fences way too many times to really care.

"Tai, what are you doing?!"

Tai looked up to find Izzy yelling from his study, his nose funnily pressed against the smudgy window pane. Tai grinned, "Good to find you home, Izzy. I have a job for you."

His words were followed with Izzy hurtling across his room and scampering for woollens. The nerd then lifted the window pane up. "What happened? Can you climb in through the window?"

"A welcome just the way I like it," quipped Tai, "You first, Agumon." And with it he spread his hands and gave the digimon a platform to bounce up the ledge.

"What happened?" Izzy persisted.

"We need to rescue Mimi."

"What?!"

"From a party."

Izzy scowled. "Oh, that one."

Tai sensed the warm waft of air hit his face as soon as he jumped into the room. Izzy's study was a mess and his laptop was blinking. His New Year Eve was to be a sure treat, Tai sniggered to himself. Under the covers was a red bug-like thing, buzzing to itself. Tai tapped at the covers, "Hello Tentomon."

"He's meditating," said Izzy.

"He's _what_?"

"Nothing, just... ignore him," Izzy replied casually, collecting the sheets of paper on the floor, "So what do we do?"

Tai began, "Well we can –"

"– And no, we're not gonna fold blank Xerox sheets into fake invitations again! They'll hand us to the police this time!"

Tai narrowed his eyes at him, and then retreated into his thinking shell. And then settled into a chair, hands at the back of his head. "Okay, then, I give up. Your call."

"Hmm," Izzy rubbed his chin, "Let's go with our regular calling thing. Tentomon, cover for us, okay?"

They thought they heard a buzz of confirmation before they jumped out of the window.

* * *

The hotel was just a taxi ride away. They got off and crossed the divider; the road was sort-of empty considering the occasion as the snowflakes studded the black tar like a starry night sky. Tai and Izzy could hear the distant music beats pulsating through the hotel's ground floor. Certainly, depending on the calling-Mimi-out idea wasn't a very good move.

"I won't say I told you so," said Tai while some fog whirled out of his mouth, "In fact saying that to _you_ is oddly unsettling."

"Shut up, Tai" snapped Izzy, slightly blushing, "As if your Xerox paper invitation card idea would've worked."

"We could've tried that, at least."

"We aren't even dressed for the occasion."

"Yeah, maybe we should've ordered some clothes from your online shopping site."

Izzy's jaw dropped to the ground, while his fist reached out instantaneously and punched Tai in the arm. He soon bypassed maroon, much to Tai's enjoyment. "It was T.K, wasn't it?"

"People tell me secrets," Tai innocently shrugged his shoulders and paced up. Izzy jogged after, still fuming. Tai thought he had a high chance to find T.K's obituary in the newspaper next day. With another evil-mastermind grin, he started again, "So, Izzy, is that where T.K buys his fedora hats?"

"Tai, if you do not cut it out, I swear –"

"Guy, guys, look. It's Palmon!"

Agumon spoke this time, lifting his claw out of the oversized disguising overcoat he wore and pointing it at the row of flower tubs by the parking lot. They ran up to the digimon, who, as well camouflaged as she looked amidst the plants even with that old pink skirt, didn't seem too happy going by her expression.

"What's wrong?" Tai inquired, sensing it, "And where's Mimi?"

"She sneaked out, Tai. She asked me not to follow – I didn't – but I waited and it's an hour now and she didn't come back – I have no idea where she went –"

"Calm down, Palmon, it's gonna be fine," he patted on her flowery head, then turned to Izzy, "D'you think she's in danger?"

Izzy tapped at his phone. "She isn't picking up."

"Maybe she can't pick up. Try texting."

Izzy did. A couple of nervous seconds later, there was a ping. He gazed hard into the screen, as if trying to decipher a code. "She wrote _zebra cross_ , and then her keypad went nuts."

"What?"

He flashed the screen at Tai. ' _ **Zebra crosssdfhfjkklljha**_ '

"Maybe she's held hostage," suggested Tai; his heart throbbed hard at the idea.

There was another ping; Izzy looked down at the screen and then up at Tai with a weird expression - somewhere between being confused and trying to suppress a laugh. "I don't think so," he said, and handed Tai the phone again. It was a new message from Mimi : ' _ **Yayay. :D**_ '

Tai shook his head and sighed. "Dear God. Okay, let's just look for the nearest zebra _crossser-blahblah_ , alright?"

* * *

It wasn't long before they found a pink jacket-clad figure hopping at the signal crossing of an empty road.

Tai looked on, a little bewildered. "Tell me again, what _exactly_ is she doing?"

They could've sat there and played poker and put on a bet to decide, but then they noticed a speeding car and the emergency alarm rang in their heads. The four of them shouted out their lungs, and while Mimi turned the side of the road to watch the speeding car, it seemed she was clueless about what to do next. Tai broke into a run, leaped and pushed her aside onto the pavement before a possible almighty collision. A sudden pain bolted in his right arm as he stood there panting; he then realised the car's rear-window mirror had crashed against it.

"Are you _freaking_ drunk?!" he yelled at Mimi.

She chuckled, "Oh no no no." So yeah, she was drunk. Tai didn't really expect this confirmation to his rhetorical question. He wheeled at Izzy and the digimons for help, shouting across the road, "Mimi's wasted!"

"I'm not wasted, sir!" And with it she broke into a fit of laughter again, before she stumbled and caught onto Tai, "I'm happy!"

"Oh, yes, you definitely are."

"Crappy new year!"

He asked earnestly. "How drunk are you?"

"I'm not drunk!"

"Huh. Okay."

She leaned further onto him; Tai suspected she was trying to reach his ear, so he bent his knees a bit. Now less panicked and more on the verge of laughter, he made a dramatic poker face and whispered, "What's up, Mimi?"

She gave off an impish grin and continued with the whispering, "I have a secret." And with it she shoved her hand into her jacket – there was a bulge Tai hadn't noticed before – and pulled out three cans of vodka.

"Where did you get them from?!"

She giggled. "Nicked two – nicked the two from the hotel and the one – one can – one from deeepartmental store. Hawwww!"

Tai stared at her in disbelief. "You stole?!"

"I live outside the law. I _lllovvve_ outside the law! They're searching for me all around!"

"We gotta return them."

"They'll arrest you!" She gasped, and let out a small sob, "And it's crappy New Year's! The yeti woman was covering for me..."

"Mimi, you know I can't understand a word of what you're saying, but I sure know we can pay the store guy tomorrow morning. Izzy, look what we've got here!"

* * *

 **10: 23 p.m. Swiss Quartz.**

Dear Mental Note,

This is Izzy. And I happen to narrate this part of the story because, well, I was the only human alibi to the crime. And as I spoke, I was watching two of my best friends stumbling and laughing across the street, drunken to the brim. I would've said returning the vodka cans was a good idea, but I knew better than to spend a night in a police lockup. But maybe, just _maybe_ , storing them in the refrigerator and not gulping it all in two seconds should've been considered too. I sighed. For a while, all I could logically gather was Agumon and Palmon staring confusedly at me, and I hopelessly staring back.

"Travelling Trevor?" Mimi nudged Tai.

"Now, who is _zat_?" Tai raised an eyebrow so high it disappeared into the brown mess he called his hair.

"I ... can't remember, really. Wait, what were we on?"

"Ummm... Bridge?"

"No, no! Not physically on, like..."

"Mentally?"

"No! Socially. On. Yes."

" _Owwkay_."

I hated getting drunk. What was so cool about losing self-control? Right now, though, I wished I was. A little. I was slightly panicky, wondering whether they would sober up themselves or would I need to call help. Who'd I call then? Sora? Matt? I snapped irritably. "Taichi, will you stop drawling your words?"

"Izzy, wanna sip?"

"No, thanks. Ugh."

The girl in the gang shot her hand up in the air. "Me! _Me_ - _me_ wants more!"

Tai gave her a goofy knowing grin. "I... like that, I do. Really like that – I'm _impresshed_ – you're witty!"

"Me?"

"Yeah, _Me_ - _me_."

"You?"

"No, you-me – wait... what the heck are we talking about?"

I sighed, shaking my head. "That would be my question."

"Shut up, Izzy."

 **11:47 p.m. Swiss Quartz.**

It was close to midnight and we were dawdling on the footpath right then, watching the blinking leave-on lights of the closed stores. The digimons engaged in a jumping game, while I drooled over absolutely nothing; in the mean time, Tai and Mimi's banters wavered from crazy to political to philosophical to, as of right now, deeply personal. They were so unaware of a third presence it came off as slightly surprising, but then it dawned on me that probably, just probably, they were closer than I thought they were.

So I listened.

Mimi stifled a laugh and showily pretended to think, and then blabbered, "Okay, Yamato."

Tai rubbed his temple, with a serious, dead serious face. "Uhhh, wait, lemme think... He's a very very very depressed man."

"That's it? No, more!"

"He is a very very very mature man. He's like forty-five years old already."

"Still not older than Joe?! Baha!"

Tai gazed at a curious piece of rock for a long while. Then his voice died down to mere muttering. "Do you think he thinks I took Sora away from him?"

And now it really felt like eavesdropping. Two halves of me struggled to hear and not to hear.

Mimi's response was drunken and instant. "Nahh, why?"

"Maybe he does, doesn't he?"

"No, man. He and Sora drifted away, you know, like... like the rats in Ratatouille."

"Like what in _what_?"

"Like – never mind. But I don't think he thinks that. You're one of his best friends."

"That one best friend he'd love to kill."

"Well, everyone would love to kill you."

"I made him sad."

"Oh, quit whining, you didn't!"

"And all for what, really?"

"For what?"

"It's just an expression."

"Oh, I thought –"

"Yeah, I just used the expression to express something – but you don't need to know it."

"Why not?"

"Because you hate me."

"Aww, I don't hate you, Tai. Maybe a little bit, but not much."

"That's so sweet of you, Mimi."

"So?"

"I don't think we love each other."

"You mean – you and me ... or you and Sora?"

"Which one of you two is my girlfriend?"

"That'll be your prerogative."

"Shut up and listen to my sad sack story."

"Okie-dokie."

"I guess what I felt for Sora was resentment. That someone was getting a part of her attention that belonged to me. Maybe I'll feel the same when Kari gets into a relationship –"

"If you stop shooing away all her potential boyfriends that is?"

"I haven't shot any one of them. I do _not_ possess a gun!"

"I said shoo, not shoot, Tai. And thank god you don't."

"Ohhhh, it's sad, I'm sad, Sora's sad, Matt's sad... _ohhh_ and we're all drifting away -"

"Like rats in Ratatouille?"

"Yeah, pretty much. Whatever that is."

"We're _so_ drunk."

"I'm not. I'm perfectly sane and normal right now."

"Of course. So did you break up?"

"Break up whom?"

"Gah, we aren't talking anymore about Kari's potential boyfriends."

"Ohhhh, you mean, you mean... Sora and me?"

"... Yeah."

"Nah. I'm a coward. I want her to dump me, in some big-ass Tokyo corporation bin – I deserve it."

"Tai, you need to stop turning the blame game on you every time. You and Sora didn't work because the best-friends cliché failed. That doesn't automatically mean Matt and Sora would've. They gave their shot."

"Yeah, I hardly understood whatever you said, but yeah."

"You never interrupted into their relationship. I know, right."

"How do you know?"

"Because I was with you all that time, idiot. All the time. All the _fucking_ time, bitch! "

"Wow, that's why I always say you're scary."

Hey, there. Izzy again. And you know what, maybe I should've had stopped hearing. I wished I had my laptop.

* * *

The clock just struck twelve. A new year. A crappy new year. They leaned against the railing of the teeny footbridge, or so he supposed – everything was slightly flashy – and there was Mimi, resting against his arm, laughing, and maybe telling him a story. Izzy was doing – something – on the phone, and there were two yellow-green dots around the corner. But the ringing noises in Tai's brain just wouldn't let him focus.

He blurted without much thinking, "My turn... okay, what is the most extreme thing you would do for me?"

The girl seemed to be on a laughing riot. Tai suddenly noticed how her hair glistened under the moonlight. She was goddamn beautiful.

She bit her lip thoughtfully. "Ummm, okay, I got this – wait, er, okay yes. I'll probably let you fart in my presence."

"Eww, Mimi, I don't fart in public!"

"Every guy does. They just don't say it."

"That analogy would do well for girls too."

"Yeah, but don't do it alright. It's the most extreme thing, so far cry. What would be your extreme thingy for me? Maybe show me your _dingy_ , ha!"

It was a good question. Random question. Only he couldn't really concentrate right then. "Um, let's say, I can die for you." He smiled proudly at his answer. Mouth did really favour the drunk.

Mimi looked half-jokey and half-shocked. She slurred, "You mean, literally _dying_? Why would you do that for me?"

"I... really don't know. But I would." Why not, she saved his life after all.

"Okay, let's say... someone shoots with a gun at me –"

"Then I'll jump in front of the gun. Easy queasy."

"Oooh, that'll hurt, but then it turns out to be a water gun..."

Tai groaned. "Just change the topic alright." All they seemed to be talking sounded like pure nonsense. He needed to sit; he had been stumbling all over the place. And Mimi, well, she was just beautiful.

"Okay, okay, ask me something new. We're sleepy and we're drunk and we'll remember nothing of it tomorrow morning. So, do it, baby!"

Tai pondered upon the demand. With his inhibitions so lowered, he couldn't even struggle over whether he should or shouldn't ask what he wanted to ask. "I told you, I'm perfectly sane and normal right now. Ummm, okay... how about this. Why do you love Michael?"

Her eyes went wide, and it culminated into the biggest and longest laughing fit she had. " _Whaaaat_? I love Michael, what?" she yelled, "I ran away to Japan because of Michael! And will you look at the fireworks!"

So it wasn't true? So five days of gracious intolerance on Tai's part was for no good? God, these ringing noises. A sound escaped his throat. "Huh?"

"Oh c'mon, do you seriously think...?"

"Yeahhh... ever since I saw him I imagine your baby having that curly blondie hair."

"Why do you imagine my baby? My baby my business! But seriously, _Michael_?!"

"Okay, so if not Michael, then _whooo_?"

"Is that why you were grumpy and jealous?"

A panic alarm went off in his head immediately. And he couldn't trust his drunken mouth anymore. "Whaaaa – who was jealous? I was never –"

"You were jelly, definitely."

" _Nevaaaah_. Protective, I was _protectiveey_. I was probably zealous."

"Well, boo, Tai, accept it. I'm sure it was the one with the 'j'."

"Accept what, really?"

"Okay, you might be a big fat engorged lying panda, but I'm not. I accept it, I _was_ jealous."

"Of Michael? Dear Lord, my head is so heavy."

"No, ugh! Why are you so oblivious, aaaargh!"

"I ... don't get it."

"I can see."

"So...?"

"Yeah, so, I love you."

"What?!" What did she just say? She meant – she – she meant in a platonic – w – what?

"And this is why I hate you."

"You're drunk out of your mind."

"That doesn't mean I'm not serious. At least it gave me the guts to say it. I love you, Tai, and I hate you because of that. Does that make any sense?"

"Well... it is... still sinking."

"I hate you, but you're funny and have cute eyes."

"Still sinking." Also, she thought he had cute eyes. Bad, _bad_ time to get drunk. Everything was being processed so slowly he felt like pulling at his hair. Wait, wait, no one _ever_ touched the hair. Arghh, he grumbled, he was swaying off the point.

"I even hated you when I came back from America, you were so annoying! But then, _baa dumm tisss_ , this happened."

"Er..."

"But the thing is, I couldn't stop thinking about you. It's not hormones, you see. We've shared so much with each other. We got so close and didn't even realise it. What does that make us, then?"

By this time, Tai was sure all of it was happening inside his head. Was she right? She couldn't be. That wasn't how he felt about her. All those late-night talks, the fights, the sharing, even the inadvertent kiss, wasn't about this. Was it, was it? No, _no_. It was Sora he felt – stuff – about. He was committed to her. There was a certain thrill he could never ignore, especially when Mimi took – Sora, he meant, took – his hand in hers. No, no. He couldn't break a heart because of a Freudian slip of tongue. But then, what was all that hoopla about he and Sora not loving each other?

"Mimi, I..."

" _Best friends_ is a really dangerous tag, you see. And especially when you just know it's something more. So, what are we?"

Tai held his breath. Izzy's presence suddenly struck him; he was possibly trying his best not to listen, staring straight into the water. Then Tai exhaled a different kind of pain in his chest. "Maybe it's just something... special?"

"Where would you place _'special'_? Anyway, I'm sooo sleepy."

"I... don't know."

"So...?"

"I, really, really don't know."

"Yeah, I thought so. Nighty night. And a crappy New Year."

* * *

 **I know, I know. Jillion years later. But I did pop up. Another part of this christmas story left! Yayayay :D**

 **Merry belated actual Christmas, and a Crappy New Year! Review! :D**


	6. Chapter 6

**CHRISTMAS 2007, CONTINUED: MOTIONS EMOTIONS COMPLICATIONS**

* * *

"Bonjour señorita."

Mimi rubbed her eyes as the sunlight attacked them and left a sharp shooting beam of pain through her head. She yawned, "So, am I in France or Spain?" She bulged her eyes to sweep her blurry vision clear; all she could figure was a tea tray, and a blond figure that looked like – Matt?

"Matt?"

"Yeah, you're in my house," he answered with a knowing smile, as if he just remembered something funny.

"What am I doing here?" asked Mimi, more hysterically than she wanted to. She genuinely wanted to know.

"Well, to be precise, you and Tai got wasted and puked in a shining dumpster last night, so Izzy had to bring you both to a place that had the least parental control."

"Yeah, you do sound like a forty-five year old," she mumbled, without quite being able to figure what it sourced from in the first place. The last night was in flashes: she was drunk, definitely drunk, and then Tai and Izzy came, then Tai gave her some drunken company ... and then they laughed, or that was what she could recollect.

"Excuse me?" Matt thought he heard it wrong.

"Is Tai here?" she asked, ignoring his question.

"He left really early in the morning. It was kind of weird, you know, for someone whose day starts at 2 o' clock in the afternoon," he dug a spoon into a small jar on the tray, "Sugar?"

"A little," she said. Then drifted off. Mother of God, what the hell happened last night? Or maybe he was really hungover in the morning.

"Maybe he was really hungover in the morning," she voiced her thoughts.

"Hmm, maybe. This was the first time he got such a thoughtful one though. I don't know, did you guys get into a drunken fight or something?"

She grinned nervously. Did they?

"I don't know," she groaned, all while lacing her fingers at the back of her head, "I don't remember and I can't stress enough that my head hurts." The caffeine did nothing to help the hangover; she sipped and scowled and groaned some more. "Wonder what condition Tai's in."

* * *

 _Awkward_. Awkward was the word.

For the first time in his life he realised what troubles of the heart actually felt like, and he couldn't even approach his regular adviser. Tai tossed and turned restlessly on the couch, slumped like a corpse, his arm dangling down, his fingers tracing the lines of the tile.

What was he supposed to do? He didn't know. It was like a hysterical screaming in his head.

Okay, let's look at things in perspective, he thought. So, a girl told him she had feelings for him. Except no girl was ever supposed to say this, and even if someone did, that girl was never supposed to be Mimi.

 _"Best friends was a really dangerous tag, Tai."_

She was right. And what was even more surprising he had never realised when they transitioned to best friends.

 _"Maybe it's something special?"_

He sensed this sudden surge of self-consciousness wash over him. Did he really say that? Not just hilariously dumb, but more so, what did it even mean? Maybe he should've said something more on the lines of - maybe something that sounded more like – like –

"Like what?!" He yelled at himself.

He sighed. Pulled out the remote poking his stomach like a gear shaft from under him, cursed at it and rolled it aside. Now that he thought about it, it occurred to him how Mimi was by side all this time, since the concert when he tried to ask Sora out. They had too many ice-creams together (it was a weird thing to note, but they did), they had bonded over their laments, loneliness and coffee. He had whined and laughed and she had scowled and smiled. He had held her tight and calmed her to sleep. He had felt his insides churn in fear when she pushed him aside and hit her head on the brick and fainted. Perhaps that was the point where something told him – she was an indispensable, inseparable part of his life. Only he was too oblivious to listen to it.

But what now? What did it all mean?

Well at least she didn't love Michael. That guy was a pretentious wuss.

 _Don't sway off the point_ , he grumbled at himself. And why on earth was he receiving such solace from the fact she never liked Michael? Was she right then? Had he been jealous all this while? Was it jealousy that made Tai grit his teeth as he watched Michael scoot so close to Mimi that he was practically pressing her against the wall? Or maybe it was pure goodwill that made him squish eggs into Michael's expensive jacket pockets (he had an inkling that Matt and Kari had probably worked out who the midnight mystery egg- _squisher_ was).

"What are you blabbering about?" Kari broke into his thoughts.

"It's nothing," he exhaled, and dug his face into the pillow, "Nothing really."

"No seriously, I could hear you from the other side of the wall. What did you drink last night, the essence of insanity?"

Tai gave her a death stare, "Who told you I _drank_?"

"You just did," she smirked, basking in the glory of having outsmarted her brother.

"That attitude isn't helping me," he replied testily.

Understanding, she slouched on the sofa near his feet. "So, what's the problem?"

All that came out of him was another muffled groan, "Nothing."

Kari poked him again, "C'mon, you've been lying here all day. C'mon, spirit of the happy new year, c'mon!"

"What?"

"I'm just trying to energise you."

"Noootttt helping."

"Tell me what happened?"

"Nothing happened."

"Is this about what happened between you and Mimi?"

Tai sprang up in alert, his heart pumping vigorously. "Who told you that?"

Kari looked back him, poker-faced and blinking sheepishly, as if she just realised she blurted out something she probably had sworn not to. "Um, what?"

Tai scrutinised her suspiciously as she froze under his gaze, "Kari...?"

She raised her hands slightly in surrender, "Okay, okay. Well, everyone knows something happened because you both have been acting weird since the morning, but well, no one knows what."

But Tai knew her way too well. "That's a lie. You know."

"I don't, and I'm offended!"

"You do."

"Seriously!"

"Kari."

She sighed dramatically. "Alright. You win. I do."

He knew it. That nerdy bastard must've had spilled it to the lousy secret-spilling machine called T.K, and the rest was history. As comical and recursive as it seemed, Tai made an impulsive jump. "You DO?!"

"Do you have a point, onii-chan?"

He dug his face as deep as he could go into the pillow, his butt in the air. "Kill me."

"Honestly, Tai, there're a lot of people who really want to."

"Ugh," he whined, "I have a headache, and this sucks. I mean, can you believe it? Mimi, out of all people?"

"Yeah, it's kind of a surprise that someone would actually tell you that –"

"Exactly!"

"– But I saw it coming right away. You never knew?"

"Well, doesn't this look like the reaction of someone in the know?" He grumbled sarcastically, scratching the back of his head.

Kari pressed on the more important question. "So, what did you do?"

"Um, I didn't really know what to say. C'mon, I was drunk!"

"Okay, you were drunk, which mum will never have to know unless you offer me that expensive sundae treat again," she analysed cheekily (all while Tai narrowed his eyes at her, "I _so_ hate you, ugh."), "but what are you planning to do now?"

What hit Tai was the way Kari kept persisting on the question. She knew he was in a relationship with Sora, wouldn't the obvious answer be a "no"?

"Sora," his heart dropped to his stomach at the sudden epiphany, "Sora knows about it too, right?"

"I guess," Kari mumbled.

"Oh good God," he sat up and buried his hands into his palms, panting, "What am I gonna do?" The last thing he wanted was the two of the girls fight over this. He couldn't bear to crack their close-knit group over something that silly. Given this, he didn't want to face Sora either. He hated confrontations. They were meant for deathbeds.

Kari rubbed on his back sympathetically. "Well if it makes you feel any better, I was only kidding about the sundae treat thing."

* * *

He had to do what he had to do.

It was evening, around 5 o' clock. Tai ploughed his feet through the snow, an odd weight pulling his shoulders down. He looked at the fogged screen of his cellphone. He had at least fifteen discarded incomplete draft messages to Mimi. He scrolled through them:

 _ **'Hey, Mimi, I know what happened'**_

 _ **'Dude, look I'**_

 _ **'About last night I thought mayb'**_

 _ **'Look, too hard for me to decide'**_

 _ **'You know I don't know maybe I do lo'**_

He didn't even know what the fifth one was about. All of them were results of a delirious typing spree. He stuffed it back into his pocket, and trotted on. Maybe he was making a deal way too big about this. Maybe no one else really cared. Maybe Mimi didn't even remember talking about it. He brushed the snow off his shoulders.

He plodded on the stairs, halted in front of the apartment, took a deep breath and knocked on the door. She opened the door, a little surprised at his unannounced visit.

"Tai?"

"Hey, Sora."

"Come in."

One look at her face and Tai knew that she knew. What puzzled him, however, was this weird panic that groped him at the thought of his girlfriend having knowledge of the events. What was the _effing_ big deal? He didn't know. It just – it just felt like a big deal. After all, it was Mimi they were concerned about. Tai uncomfortably walked in and settled on the couch.

"Mum just went out," Sora said awkwardly, trying to make conversation, "and I can't just get a hang of that physics assignment thing."

"Oh," he responded thoughtfully, "Physics sure is hard. Lucky we never crossed roads in college." And ended with a nervous laugh.

"Yeah, well, college is harder," she mumbled, "You wanna eat something?"

"No, er, I'm kinda full, thanks."

She raised her eyebrows, smiling. "You're full?"

Tai glared in mock-irritation, "Yeah-huh." He fidgeted with his phone and rubbed his fingernails together. Are they not going to talk about that?

"Maybe if you've got some leftovers from Christmas," he threw in a cautious joke, deliberately bringing the subject on line. She laughed, but the sound gradually died down.

"Tai," she looked up, a little worried, a little disappointed, "We need to talk."

He sighed. "I know."

They both waited for the other to speak, and nobody did. She sat beside him, staring at her toes. Tai reached out and clasped her hand. In hindsight, this was something probably both wanted, and this had to be the perfect moment for closure. He remembered the time he thought this relationship was something he could die for. Never did he imagine it could be this distanced, this weird, this difficult. Furthermore, they had been hurting people. Matt, and now Mimi. It was time they let it go. It was time they grew up. It was time they realised some things never worked out the way they wished. It was time they stopped being stubborn and owned up to the fact they never looked at each other _that_ way.

Sora spoke first.

"So, I guess, this is it, huh?"

Her voice cracked with emotion and it felt like a knife going straight through his heart. He whispered, holding her, "I guess."

Sora took in a long, hard breath. "Well, I think this was a pretty great thing. What was it, one year something?"

He nodded. "Pretty much."

"And it doesn't change anything, does it? You're still my go-to guy."

Tai smiled, his eyes watering a bit. "Oh, Sora."

And she smiled back. He gave her a small peck on the cheek. Out of all kisses they had shared, this one felt oddly special. As if it spelt they were back to square-one. Back to being sibling-y soccer buddies. Best friends.

"Are you gonna be okay?"

She breathed. "I'll try to be."

* * *

After about a week, Mimi wondered what was going to be the next chapter in her _Avoiding Tai Forever 101_ mental book.

Final year at high school had already taken a toll – with the pressure and everything she had missed out in the summer – which meant she hardly had time to step out of the house, or to meet anybody (apart from Izzy and his math tutorials, that too through the computer). Their new house being quite far off from Odaiba helped too.

She flipped out her phone and bounced on the bed, right then having turned down Michael's umpteenth offer to move back to America. She wondered if she should've called Tai once. Just out of curiosity, maybe bring out the subject in the lightest manner possible. But in all honesty, the idea of it was quite intimidating.

But then the fateful day arrived, gradually, and quite casually.

It was a meeting. The gang wanted to browse over a couple of issues regarding the whole digimon fiasco going on (which she embarrassingly had zilch knowledge about, except it was really nothing to stress over). She arrived at Izzy's backyard garage fifteen minutes late, and scrambled for a chair at the back. Tai had been speaking when she barged in, panting. Both of them froze at their places, and remained so until Izzy gave out a loud, annoyed, interrupting bout of coughing.

She settled in a corner and pretended to pay attention, thinking of a million ways she could run out of the garage before anyone could catch up with her. She ran eyes across the room. The only person who looked equally lost and anxious was Joe. _I hope he doesn't have a stupid crush on Tai too_ , she thought, _or_ _did he_? She grinned to herself at the little joke.

"So, T.K and I would be taking guard in the area around the bridge, I guess?" piped Daisuke, as his loud voice came crashing into Mimi's trance.

"All clear, except I don't know why you're so excited about it," T.K laughed it off.

Mimi assumed that marked the end of their meeting, as most people began shuffling in the room, grouping into huddles, talking. Time to take off.

"Hey," somebody tapped on her shoulder unsuspectingly. Mimi turned. It was Kari.

"Hi, Kari," she smiled nervously. She didn't even know what she was nervous about.

"Where have you been? It seems I haven't seen you for a long time."

Mimi scratched the back of her head. She had been picking up habits from Taichi. Huh. Anyway, she cut out the distraction and said, "Yeah, I've been kinda busy, I'm going crazy with all the stupid school stuff I can't even understand..."

Suddenly, Kari gave off a smug smile.

"Whaaaa-haat happened?" Mimi asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," she giggled, "Everything's kinda changed. And new and changed. And new."

Mimi raised her eyebrows. "Um, what?"

"Oh, you know," and then Kari did a small head tilt towards – her brother, maybe?

"You okay, Kari?"

"Yeah, I'm happy. I knew this would happen –"

"Er –"

"– And sad too. Sora's like a sister. It's weird and complicated. But it's better this way, you know. The heart wants what it wants. And I'm talking too darn much right now."

Mimi put a hand on her shoulder. "Kari, I do not understand a word of what you're saying. Sure, I'm out of track for a week, but – are you sure you don't have a fever or something?"

"I'm talking about you and Tai."

Mimi's heart gave a gigantic, life-threatening throb. "What... about me and Tai?"

"You don't know?" the pixie-haired girl stared at her confusedly, but then gasped aloud, "God, you don't know! What did I just _do_?!"

Mimi's heart thumped louder with each syllable she uttered. "I don't know... _what_?"

Kari pursed her lips, a bright blush spreading across her cheeks. "Um..."

Mimi persisted. "What is it?"

Kari continued to hesitate, adjusting her hair clip, looking around for an escape route, but Mimi's gaze pierced through her. "Well," she mumbled, "Sora and Tai broke up, and I thought... well, nothing, um..."

"And they broke up because...?"

Kari couldn't bring herself to answer that. "It happened after the New Year's night. And I now wish somebody had struck a nail in my mouth and I'd have stopped blubbering. I'm so sorry, Mimi."

Mimi clasped her forehead. Panicking. What in God's holy name happened that _damned_ night? Why couldn't she remember? How grave could it have been that it escalated to this? It was scary. Very scary. Sora and Tai must've had been thinking of cutting her out of their lives now.

"It's okay," breathed Mimi, "Maybe this is what having a stroke feels like."

Before Kari could respond, she ran out of the garage room. Her heart thumped like a funeral drum. She tried to rack her brains but no, that night remained a complete blur. Did she kiss him, again? Did she go... beyond that? That couldn't have been possible, could it, with the perfectly-sane Izzy and the digimons loitering about the streets with them? Izzy and the digimons. They _knew_. Should she ask him? Should she ask Palmon? Did she have the courage to listen to the answer?

She didn't stop running. The bus stop was just a few blocks away. She didn't bother respond to any of the barely-heard after calls. Soon enough, she felt tears stinging her eyes.

She had been such a horrible, horrible friend.

All of a sudden, the phone rang. She jumped in alarm, and then pulled it out: it was Michael. Halfway through rejecting the call, something happened. Like a push of an instinct. Like a sudden solution to everything going wrong in her life.

"Hey, Michael," she choked.

"Mimi, hi, look I called to know – wait, you okay?"

"I'm – I'm okay."

"Sure? You don't sound like it."

"I am fine," she croaked irritably, "And Mike, good that you called. I was thinking, well," she exhaled a long breath. She made up her mind; there would be no turning back. She had to do the requisite, before things fall apart into bits and pieces. Tears began to leak from the corners of her eyes again. She whispered into the receiver,

"I was thinking to consider it."

* * *

"YOU HAVEN'T TOLD HER YET?!"

Tai was invited into the house with this thunderous question that frightened his very soul out of its wits. He leaped and cowered behind the couch at the sound, before he caught on with Kari, standing in the middle of the room, her arms akimbo, her doll-like composure intact nevertheless (something he always wondered how).

"What were you trying to do? Kill me?" Tai counter-questioned in a shaky voice.

Kari folded her arms. "I just had the most embarrassing time of my life. Because of your idiocy."

"Huh," Tai looked unimpressed, "What did I do this time?"

"I ran into Mimi in the garage today."

Tai's insides flipped. Numerous times throughout the week he had contemplated talking to her, but chickened out. It was too complicated. And he wouldn't have known what to say. Eventually he had decided today would be the day; he was almost there, his mind running full with hundreds of strands of thought, beginning from how he would start to how he would slowly glide to the point, but then he watched her run out of the garage. He had sighed. She must've had been pretty busy these days.

"And?"

Kari looked at him as if he asked her both her kidneys. "And? What d'you mean, _and_? Obviously, you haven't talked to her, and I made a complete fool of myself," she stared at her fingernails, "And as a matter of fact, maybe messed things up for you?"

Tai furrowed his eyebrows. "What d'you mean?"

"Well," she awkwardly traced the linings of the tiles on the floor with her feet, "I thought you had told her you love her, so I was being all smug and all..."

"Wait a minute, wait. What again?"

"I was being all playful and smug and everything..."

"No, no no, the _love_ part?"

Kari looked at him, her arms akimbo again, "Well, you love her."

Panic. Head rush. Insides flipping, somersaulting. "Who told you I lo-love her?"

"You don't?"

He sighed and slumped on the sofa, as usual, "I don't know. It's complicated."

"If you don't love her, why did you break up with Sora at all?"

"Ugh, I told you. It's complicated."

"I really don't get you."

He did what he did these days as a tool of denial: digging his face into the cushion. "Leave me alone, Kari. It's all very complicated and I don't know and I'm tired..."

"So you aren't gonna talk to Mimi at all?"

"I thought I'll do it today but –"

"So, go talk to her!"

He sat up again, almost like a zombie, staring ahead into the TV set, lost like a kid on a busy street. "You think?"

Kari squeezed his shoulder, "Tai, do you love her?"

"I... don't know," he said; Kari opened her mouth to argue but he gently cut her off, "No, no, it isn't something I'm saying just for the sake of it. It's just... just a strong rush of emotions I can't give a name to."

"Hmm," she nodded understandingly, "You're cheesy."

Tai grinned at that. "I think I'd know it for sure when I talk to her."

"Go for it, hero."

* * *

He parked his bike and stood in front of the door to the Tachikawa apartment, and took the deepest breath of his life.

"Okay, okay, okay okay. I can do this. I may die, but that's okay," he chanted to himself, fidgeting.

The door seemed to take ages to open. Tai happened to be drastically low on patience today. He clenched his fists, gave off a nasty scowl (which he had to turn into a particularly creepy smile as Mrs. Tachikawa came to the doorstep the next second). Nevertheless, she welcomed him in.

"Is Mimi around?" he asked, running his eyes across the living room.

"She's upstairs," Mrs. Tachikawa informed him, before calling out, "Mimi! Taichi's come to visit!"

There was an abrupt hurried sound of footsteps down the stairs and there she was, right in front of him. Soon enough, Mrs. Tachikawa excused herself to make some tea. Tai looked at her. His heart clubbed inside his chest. He felt so nervous he had to clench his fists again to stop his fingertips from jerking. The tension was too palpable.

"Let's go upstairs?" Mimi offered in a low voice. Tai nodded in agreement and followed her trail.

Her room looked messier than he remembered. In fact, it was messier than he had ever seen. It was as if she were packing for a vacation, or something. Tai piled some of the clothes up and made some room for them to sit. They were becoming more uncomfortable by the minute and if no one spoke soon the universe would explode.

"So, what's up with you these days?"

That was lame, _so_ lame. Tai couldn't find a swear-word good enough for himself.

"Nothing much," she answered, "Just busy with the school stuff these days. Probably the only time I went out was for groceries."

"Yeah, but I think, I _think_ somebody who looked just like you attended the meeting this morning," he joked.

"Yeah, yeah, that was me," she gave him a smug smile.

He had to come to the point _now_. Why was the crest of courage doing nothing for him? He rubbed his fingernails together, scratched the back of his head, sensed like pulling out his hair, and had horrifyingly chipped his nails. Mimi seemed to have sensed it coming, as she held her breath and waited, pretending to be busy with the mess. Alright, here it came. He began,

"So, um, what's with all the clothes lying around, huh?"

Shit. Could somebody bring in a loaded gun and kill him? That was not even close to what was supposed to come out of his otherwise big mouth. He groaned.

"Yeah, I'm probably moving back to America."

Hearing it, Tai felt as though somebody drove a knife in his chest and twisted it. His throat dried up. He must've had perceived it wrong. " _What_?"

"America?" she repeated. Coldly. Cautiously.

"You – you can't go."

"Why not?" Now she was desperately avoiding his eyes.

"Because," he started on instinct, but didn't have an end to his sentence, "Because."

"Look, it's a great thing. There's this really cool and prestigious design internship I could do, and – I don't know," her voice died down to a mere whisper, "I think I want to go."

But she couldn't leave, could she? It was hard to hold back this sudden surge emotion in his throat. It was Mimi they were talking about. She couldn't just leave. She couldn't leave because. _Because_.

* * *

 **Hi there! I'm back. Better late than never. Another part of this Christmas story left! Huehuehue. REview!**


	7. Chapter 7

**CHRISTMAS 2007, CONTINUED: PICTURE FRAME**

* * *

"So, what happened?"

Tai looked at his sister, who expectantly stood at the entrance to the building, and gave her a point-blank gaze as he walked his bicycle up to the garage. He gulped down the hollowness, and tried to focus way too hard on the bicycle even as Kari grew impatient.

"Tai?" she called out, a little apprehensive, "What happened?"

He turned at her this time, his voice lost. "She's leaving for America. That's what happened."

She gasped. "Wha- what?"

"Yeah."

"So, so what're you gonna do?"

Tai locked his bicycle with unnecessary force. He felt so heavy and choked it was hard to formulate a reply. He blamed the bad acidic taste in his mouth on the tea. He knew he shouldn't take it out on Kari; she had cheered him through it and wanted the best for him – and right then, genuinely wanted to know. He let out a defeated sigh, rendered a sideways glance at her as he made for the stairs. "I don't know."

He raced upstairs, reached the apartment, threw his shoes aside and slumped dejectedly onto the couch. He could hear Kari's footsteps following, even as he dug his face into the cushion.

"Did you tell her?" She wouldn't just stop pestering.

"Kari, I'm not in a talking space right now –"

"You didn't tell her?"

He shot up suddenly, the vein in his temple popping in annoyance. "There was nothing to tell, okay! She's leaving, she wants to leave, what am I supposed to say?"

Kari crossed her arms defiantly. "For starters, you could've at least told her not to leave."

"Why on earth would I say that?" he yelled incredulously at the ceiling, "I am not the one making decisions for her. She wants to leave, she leaves! There's no stopping her!"

"You didn't even try!"

"Why would she listen to me?"

Kari threw her arms up in the air in surrender. "Oh, good god, Taichi. Why do you think?"

The answer was easy. Because she loved him. Because her leaving would feel like a gaping hole in his chest. Because even the thought of it was weighing him down, was making him want to burst out and cry. He pulled himself up from the couch and headed to his room. "I'm not telling her anything," he mumbled furiously, "and you aren't either. This is over."

* * *

Packing was hard. The even harder part was the fact she didn't quite have a helper apart from Palmon and her mother; she wished she could've called Sora, but not only was she terrified of her, she wished to keep her moving a secret until the last day. She didn't want people coming down on her, putting arguments and defences over why she should probably stay.

Nobody would really care. Tai looked sad – angrier than sad, really – but she had already ripped apart his equation with her, hadn't she? Sora probably hated her too much – she stole her boyfriend, after all – to wave her off with a decent good-bye. Joe had his exams. Izzy, TK and Kari were the neutrals – they might just make it to the airport. Matt wouldn't bother, would he?

She did have candy bars for everyone though. It notched up odd, happy memories as she looked out through the window beside the study, smiling to herself.

Oh, God, _no_.

She could trace a familiar red-headed figure marching her way up to the apartment. Mimi's heart began to pound. She knew what Sora had arrived for. And even worse, Mimi had nothing to tell her back. The idea of a screaming, swearing confrontation chilled her. She already felt like being dragged to the circle of shame, and she could do nothing but wait, her head hung low.

 _Oh, for God's sake someone tell me what happened that night!_

She could make out the faint noise of Sora talking to her mother downstairs. It sounded like a peaceful conversation. Well, of course it was. Here we go. The sounds of footsteps on the stairs, one after another... somehow it synced with the fierce thumping of her heart. She clenched her fist, dug her eyes into the floor and waited. Her eyes welled up even as she blanched at every thud. Suddenly, the door was pushed open.

"Mimi?"

She twitched. "Hi – hi, Sora."

"What the _hell_ are you doing? You're leaving?"

Wow, she really did think this one wouldn't be a pressing issue.

"Well, yeah," she grinned nervously, at which Sora fumed, "I was gonna tell you but then –"

"Why?"

"What do you mean, why?"

"Why're you going?"

"Oh," Mimi forced a loud chuckle, "There was this amazing design internship Michael was harping about, and then I thought I'd rather take it."

"That's not the reason."

Her brow furrowed in annoyance, "What?"

"So, you're telling me, you're setting off without completing your final year for some random internship?"

"Uh- yeah," she stuttered.

Sora gave her a fiery-eyed gaze. Mimi tried to look away, not sure what was going on. If Sora hadn't landed on the Taichi topic yet, then Mimi wouldn't deliberately pull them both into the muck. That was definitely not how she wanted to leave things between the once-best-friends.

"It's about Tai, isn't it?"

There it was. Mimi bit her lip even as tears forced their way down. Sora comfortingly clasped her hand. "Mimi, what's going on between you two?"

"I'm sorry," she sobbed without thinking; she could feel herself shattering in a million pieces. She was shamelessly crying now, even as Sora looked on – with concern and curiosity – a kind of curiosity with which one would look at a weird insect, or a road accident.

"Don't go," that was all Sora could say, her voice heavy, "You're my favourite girl."

How it all felt like a knife to the chest.

* * *

It was confirmed. She was leaving on the 15th of the month. Tai looked out of the window, his face pressed against the icy pane, watching the snow settle. He tossed the football aside, went ahead to finish up the rest of his homework, then had a sudden change of heart; flipped his workbook shut and reached out to his phone, flicking through the list of voicemails.

"Hey, how many sandwiches do want? Kari's making salmon pickle sandwiches!" Agumon piped in from the door.

"I'm not that hungry," he sighed.

Agumon's face fell, even as he trotted back to the kitchen with slower, dragging steps. "Oh. Okay."

Tai held his breath in and dug his head into his arms. He didn't want to disappoint, but it seemed that was all he did these days. Only last morning he woke up deciding he'd pretend being happy no matter what, but then this voicemail arrived and it all went in vain. He chucked the phone aside, it hit on the side of the bed and somehow, the message began to play. He looked across the distance.

" _Hey, Tai. It's me, Mimi. Um, er - well, I – I just wanted to say... Well, not sure what I'm saying here_ (nervous laughter) _, it's just that, I'm leaving on 15th and... I just thought we have some things to sort and it's not a good idea to leave things the way they are between us. So... give me a call, maybe? Bye."_

It had been more than sixteen hours and he hadn't replied to the voicemail. Mimi must've given up by now. Of course, if she cared enough.

But she did care. She cared more than he ever did. She cared about him at his most oblivious, most obnoxious, most withdrawn. And as a friend - or whatever they were to each other - he must return the favour. She was scared, and maybe this time he needed to make the first move.

He jumped into action, searched about the room; there at a corner was a mixtape he planned, as much as it wrenched his heart to think, to give her as a parting gift, beside it was a goofy picture of them he had framed – he remembered the day too well, it was around six months back and they had been in a photo booth, half of the ice-creams plopped on their noses, fingers on their head and tongues wagging, pretending to be bunnies. It felt like a long time ago, now.

He grabbed the gifts, the keys to his bike and darted to the door, almost causing Kari and Gatomon to leap in alarm.

"Tai, it's snowing outside!" yelled Kari after him, "Get a jacket before you go out!"

He clasped whatever was nearest to him; it was a football jersey. He shook his head and pulled it over. The sudden urgency had sent a rush of blood to his head. Then headed out. Kari was right; it was snowing. It was almost impossible to carve a way out through the snow with his bike, so he decided to plough on by foot to the Tachikawa residence.

One more time, he had to pay for leaping before thinking. Dressed in a mere jersey and summer shorts with odd snow boots, and numbed to the core, his arms wrapped around himself, he reached Mimi's and somehow gathered the strength to ring the doorbell. He dusted the snow off his shoulders, and leaned against the door, trying to keep a merry distance from his icy death.

It was when the door pulled open and he almost stumbled backwards onto the warm floor of the living room.

"Oh my god, Taichi, what the _hell_ are you doing?" Mimi was hysterics. For a split-second it seemed she had forgotten everything that had been going on between them.

After the stars before his eyes faded, he noticed Mimi bending over him, confused and a little concerned. He groaned; he was still shivering. "C-can I have some coffee?"

"Sure," she mumbled, before she opened a closet and gently wrapped a blanket around his shoulders, "Rephrase, why are you trying to knock yourself out cold?"

"I couldn't find my jacket."

"That explains the shorts."

He scratched the back of his head, grinning sheepishly. "Didn't notice I had shorts on."

She fell silent. Tai inwardly cursed himself. "So," he trailed off, desperately hoping that they could get back to their playful selves without addressing the elephant in the room, "Mrs. Tachikawa – she isn't, she isn't home?"

"Mom's gone to her cousin's," she replied, "Michael's upstairs. He was helping me with the applications and stuff..."

Good god, this guy was a perpetual pain in the bum. "Oh," Tai tried to respond thoughtfully, "He's been – like, living here?"

"No, no no," she said defensively, "just came an hour ago. Um, hey, why don't you go upstairs? I'll make you guys coffee."

"Okay."

He set off for upstairs, stopped short on his tracks as soon as he noticed Michael, slumped on the bean bag beside the bed and munching onto an apple. Michael watched him come in, even as the blond broke into a wide grin, flashing his perfect set of teeth.

"Long time no see, old sport," Michael piped in. Tai gave him a confused stare, then out of options, grinned back nervously, "Hello to you too, Michael. Hey, Palmon." The digimon waved back, all while sending irritable glances at the overexcited young blond man slumped on the place without any regard for the universe surrounding him.

"Mimi's going back to America. Isn't it exciting?"

"Very," mumbled Tai sarcastically. The guy had already begun grating on his nerves.

"You know, I've been telling her since ages. Nagging works!"

"Sure."

"It's going to be awesome. The day-parties, I tell you, without Mimi –"

Tai groaned and mentally put Michael on a semi-permanent mute, making sure everything that came from him was received by his ears as corrupted radio signals. Michael babbled on, unaware of Tai's disinterest.

"...And living close helps. I was wondering, when she joins the Alpha Kappa girls again, maybe I'll be able to _woo_ her."

Tai gave him a narrow-eyed judgemental side-stare. "You know what you should do," he scoffed even as the blond flicked his gelled locks away from his face, "you should take her back to 1860 when the phrase was last used." From the corner of his eye, he watched Palmon struggling to not giggle.

Unsure whether it was a joke or an insult, Michael gave him a hesitant laugh, and trotted towards the door, "I'll check on Mimi."

Tai nodded politely. Palmon crawled up on the bed as soon as Michael's shadow turned left and disappeared. "I really don't like him," she commented, shaking her head. Tai winked at the digimon.

After about fifteen minutes of playing throw and catch with a ball of knitting wool with Palmon, he noticed Mimi emerge into the room with two steaming mugs of coffee. In an attempt to play it casual, he began in a teasing tone, "Well, where did Prince Charming Hair go?"

Mimi glared at him, "Please be kidding. He just left, said he remembered some work... or something. Did you say something to him? Oh, no, you two ganged up on him, didn't you?"

Tai exchanged sheepish looks with Palmon, and then answered with a perfect poker-face, "We didn't do anything." Palmon nodded in second opinion.

Mimi smiled to herself, not convinced at all. "Anyway, here," she handed Tai the mug, and trailed off, "So..."

"I got your voicemail."

"Oh yes, _that_."

They didn't speak for a whole minute. Tai scratched the back of his head, his heart racing, shifting under his heated collar, "So, you – you said, you wanted to – you know, talk about... stuff." He hung his head and discontinued; he had no idea why he was playing the fool, except he knew he couldn't right then face the things they _had_ to talk about. Maybe someday. He just hoped it wouldn't be too late then.

"So, I'm leaving on fifteenth."

"Yeah, I heard."

He looked away; it felt as if somebody put a rock on his chest. After a while, Mimi stuttered out, her voice heavy.

"Do you not care?"

His heart skipped another beat. Why would she even ask that? He slowly muttered, "My caring wouldn't make a lot of difference, would it."

He stole a glance at her; she was sobbing, her face glazed with tears. He reached out and squeezed her shoulder. He swallowed down the blob of emotion constricting his own throat. "Don't cry, Mimi."

She hastened to wipe her eyes, try to get back the long-gone cheery disposition. "I have a lot to pack."

"Why are you even going?"

"You guys have to stop asking that question. I told you, Tai, it's a prestigious thing –"

"I get it. I get it. But Mi, that Michael is tricking you – he said something about day parties and something alpha beta sigma... and that he wants to _woo_ you," he rolled his eyes at the word, "I blocked him out, but I know whatever I heard, I heard it right."

Mimi returned a bored gaze, and flipped her hair. "I'm not going because he talked me into it. _Puh-lease."_

He smirked. "That's better. Then why?"

She turned her back, staring at the floor. "I told you why."

Tai waited for a few minutes, maybe hoping she'd explain, but soon gave up, sighing. "Okay."

She looked back in what he thought was slight shock, even disappointment. "Okay."

It was worse than he had ever felt. It was as if someone tore out his heart and was repeatedly stomping over it on the floor. He clenched his fists, rose and set off silently towards the door. His steps were heavy, almost as if he were dragging the burden that was his body.

"I should go."

She nodded, still gazing at the floor.

All of a sudden, he realised the bulge in his pocket, and pulled out his parting gifts – he had somewhat clumsily wrapped them in newspaper – the wrapping around the picture frame was nearly wearing off, but he somehow crumbled it around to keep an element of surprise. He forced a smile, and handed them, "I had these for you."

She took them, "What are these?"

"You'll see," he said happily.

A tear ran down her cheek as she put them aside on the bed, never looking twice. It broke his heart – or whatever that was left of it – and he guessed it was a hint big enough that it was time to leave the room. He trotted out of the room, with a last pause at the doorway; he didn't glance back though, glancing back made it even harder.

"Keep in touch."

* * *

She couldn't bear to look up until he was gone.

She could hear his footsteps fading, and the soft closing of the door. Her heart thudded against her ribs even as she rubbed her chest to calm herself.

"What the hell was that?" yelled Palmon once he was gone. Mimi managed to mumble, "What do you mean?"

The digimon eyed her incredulously, raised her green paws in the air and blew out a long breath, "I give up. I cannot take this anymore."

Mimi's eyes fell on the clumsily wrapped gifts instead as they lay gloriously on her bed. She clasped onto them tightly – if they had been too fragile they would've broken. The first one was a picture frame; tearing away the wrapping led to a fresh onslaught of tears. She remembered the day too well; it was only last summer, a hot bright sweaty summer afternoon, when she had finally stopped limping on her fractured ankle and they had stepped out for groceries just for the fun of it.

"So we have cream, chocolate milk, some flour... what exactly had we planned to make?" she had asked, half-giggling.

"I don't remember," Tai had replied, "I came along because I needed some ice cream to keep my body running."

She had dabbed her forehead with her embroidered handkerchief and screwed her eyes against the scorching sun, "It's too hot. Where's my damn hat when I need it?"

"The shopping complex's just two blocks away. Nice temperature there. I'm hoping."

One thing had led to another and soon enough they had ordered three-scooped ice-cream cones and had sneaked into a photo booth. Tai had been so busy gobbling down his cone he hadn't even noticed a big blob hanging onto its life at the tip of his nose.

"You look like a bunny," she had laughed out loud at him.

Soon he had a cross-eyed realisation about the blob and almost as if on reflex, he thumped some of the cream on her nose, even as she gasped, scandalised.

"My sunscreen! Tai, you're disgusting!"

"C'mon Mi, we're bunny people," he had chuckled, "now let's take the pictures. One, two three... bunny!"

It was a nice day. He had known something was troubling her. He couldn't have guessed, and instead of peering and sticking needles into wounds, he had forced her to go out on that hot afternoon. He had even involved his sister into the plan; she could distinctly remember Kari pushing her out, doubled up in laughter, even as the siblings made lame excuses about buying things for a make-believe recipe. Tai had this crazy effect on her; he could make her laugh even if she were staring at her death. It was simultaneously painful and soothing to think about.

Mimi broke out of her trance, putting the picture frame down. She peeked out of the window – it had begun to snow again - and Tai must've been marching down the path in that flimsy football jersey. Instinctively, her hand went for her phone and she dialled – it didn't matter if he was mad at her, the least she could do was offer him an overcoat.

He wasn't picking up. _Dammit_. She ran downstairs, then to the porch. He was nowhere to be seen. He couldn't have walked that fast. A fair guess would be that he took a taxi. Her shoulders slumped; she slowly walked in, tracing the patterns of the carpet with her feet.

"Mimi."

"What happened now, Palmon?"

"You know you both love each other, don't you."

Mimi was taken aback. "What – what do you – _what_?"

"Tai is a nice guy, Mimi –"

"Palmon," she shrugged. Palmon was wrong – somewhat. Tai wasn't just a nice guy – he was probably _the_ nicest guy she had ever known. She could ramble on and on about it... except it wouldn't matter. She added in a low-key whisper, "I don't deserve him. And he doesn't see me that way."

"What are you talking about? He broke up with Sora because you told him you love him."

" _What_?"

Palmon looked up, confused. "What?"

Oh dear god. So that was what happened that night. She had told him. She had probably told him everything. She felt disoriented; her breathing went shallow, her heart throbbed like a funeral drum, her insides twisted into a knot. This meant... Tai knew, Sora knew, Kari knew. _Everybody_ knew.

"I – I had forgotten what happened that night," she fell to her knees, her eyes welling up even as she dug her face into her palms, "Why didn't you tell me before?!"

"I didn't know that you didn't know, Mimi."

"God, _God_."

"Why else would he break up with Sora?"

"I... don't know."

"He just hasn't been able to face his feelings yet. It was too sudden for him."

"Palmon."

"He loves you, Mimi."

She couldn't hold it any longer. Bursting into hot tears, she lashed out in defeat, almost as if on herself. "If he did love me, wouldn't he have at least given me one reason to _not_ go?!"

* * *

 **Anooother chapter to go. It'll be the final one, I promise.**

 **Guuuuuuys, remember me? :] lel. Anyway, two words to kill a Digimon fan :**

 **REBOOT COMPLETE**

 **I'm still an emotional wreck. This was my favourite Tri movie so far, no doubt ( wasn't a big fan of Ketsui :\ , but it had its moments, and I cried like a wuss there as well so... *poker face* ).**

 **And nonetheless, thank you for all the love during my absence. Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**CHRISTMAS 2007, CONTINUED: AIRPORT STORY**

* * *

 **13th June.**

The bright sun scorched over her face as she blinked awake. She looked around, lost, pulled away the blanket, touched the coldish floor with her good foot and reached out for her temporary crutch. She had been quite better now, in fact, the physiotherapist pretty much assured she'd be able to get rid of the damn crutch in another week. Muddled thoughts in her head, she limped her way to the living room and found Kari at the kitchen counter, making an omelette.

"Good morning, Mimi-chan," Kari greeted with a smile, even as Mimi limped her way to the girl.

"Let me help," Mimi offered, surprised at herself how much she had changed – from a spoilt brat who would bring down the house if breakfast wasn't served ready at the bedside. She guessed she had changed for a while now, but this was the first time she noticed it.

"You can make the toasts," Kari relented after a while, "It's just us. Mum and dad have gone to visit grandma. Tai's at soccer practice."

"Soccer?" Mimi raised an eyebrow, "Isn't it Sunday?"

"Actually Tai had missed quite a bit of practice in the past few weeks so he's just doing some extra shifts to compensate –"

Kari looked up at her, and bit her lip. "Sorry, I wasn't supposed to tell you that. Please don't tell him I told you. He specifically asked me not to."

Of course he did, because it was too easy to put two and two together. Mimi's heart sank to her empty stomach even as she half-heartedly approached the toaster. "It's my fault," she mumbled to herself.

Unfortunately, Kari caught that. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Mimi," she said, so kindly that Mimi clenched her fists and turned away, "He doesn't mind."

She knew he wouldn't even accept that he minded. But that didn't change the fact it was affecting him, burdening him. Over the last few weeks, Tai had been spending an awful lot of time at his home – taking her to her parents, to high school, insisting to get on the back of his bike even when she'd stumble and hesitate – all when he had his semester exams on his head, his soccer practice that took a major share of his week, and his college classes that take place almost at the other side of the city. It took a lot of rushing about to do everything, yet he'd pretend he wasn't bothered.

"But," Mimi stuttered out, but trailed off, as if something constricted her throat, "Why would he do that... that too, for me." She ended almost inaudibly.

Somehow Kari caught it all again. Man, she must've some sort of a special power. Kari plated the omelettes and grinned, "Tai has always been like that, Mimi. It's hard to see. He'll pretend that doesn't care. He'll come off as impulsive, tactless. But at the end of the day, all he wants is to see everybody happy."

Mimi pulled out the hot toasts and stumbled her way to the dining table with a couple of plates even as Kari continued. "Remember back in the digiworld when you were mourning about the digimons dying and he asked you to get a hold of it and move on?"

The memory came off slightly blurry, but yes, she remembered. She mumbled, "Yeah..."

"It came off as real harsh, but it wasn't as if he didn't care about the dying digimons. Tai's always like that; he's after the bigger picture. He feels like he needs to save the world by himself. That anything wrong that happens is somehow his fault. He just wanted to end it all so that everyone can be happy again. He can't handle his own conflict and ergo comes the ruthless military mode.

At some point of that journey, we've all looked out for ourselves, questioned and hesitated. Only Tai and Izzy worked relentlessly so we could've had a good night's sleep. He's always volunteered first to keep watch, towards the end he looked after me and TK... He was confused after Matt hit back at him, even you and Joe left... he could've gone away too to seek answers about himself but it was his crazy sense of responsibility that kept him looking forward."

Mimi stared through her breakfast, even as the toast grew cold. She wasn't sure how what Kari said added up, but it definitely got her thinking. She mused, "I always thought he was a pretty great leader. He still is."

"He worries a lot these days. About collateral damage, people he might hurt without even knowing... he goes crazy thinking about it. He told me once about it, and then never brought it up again. He's been worrying about you too, Mimi. He believes what happened to you was his fault. But trust me when I say this, he'll never talk to you about it."

"What the hell? If you guys hadn't reached there in time, both Palmon and I would've been dead."

"He doesn't understand," said Kari, "he'd never understand. It's because of me. Mum and dad have left me under his care so often that he feels anything that happens to me is his doing. When I was small, and my cold got really bad, he took me out to play. Everybody knows this story, he tells it in a way it seems he almost committed bloody murder. That was how he was made to believe. But to tell you the truth, I was pretty weak and I hid it from him. I would've passed out in the hallway. He didn't force me to go out, I told him I was feeling okay. After that happened, he doesn't sleep well everytime I have a cold. When you ask him he'd blame it on the heat or the cold or that he was hungry. Once it was when we were at my grandma's and we were given different rooms, and late at night I found him curled up in a chair at my bedside. If I ask him, he'll make a joke about it. He'll _run_ _away_. That's how he is."

* * *

It was around 5:30 in the evening and she had been flipping pages of a magazine when the doorbell rang. It was too early for Kari to return from her piano classes, so it must've been either the Kamiya parents or Tai. She lifted her crutch and limped her way to the door and turned the knob.

It was Tai, indeed. He flashed a tired smile. But that wasn't what sent her squealing through the ceiling in panic.

"Taichi! _Wha_ – how – are you okay?"

"Yeah..." he trailed off. It was a stupid question to ask; of course he wasn't. He had a bleeding bruise on his cheek and was practically leaning against the door. He tried to walk in, clutching his side, even as his knees seemed to buckle. Mimi instinctively held out her good arm to support him, while Agumon steadied him from the other side.

"I'm okay," he shrugged, "I'm just a little... light-headed."

"Pardon my language," she glared, "but what the _fuck_ happened?! I thought you were at practice!"

"I was at practice..." he collapsed on his bed, heaving a giant sigh, "Then something happened..."

He sounded a little delirious. "Are you having a concussion?" she asked, unable to find an external injury apart from the bruise on the cheek, "Tell me."

"No..." and with it he closed his eyes and seemed to drift off.

"Tai!" Mimi and Agumon screamed almost in unison. She bit her lip to hold back the panic. "Keep talking to me," she breathed sharply, and then turned to the digimon, "What the hell happened? Taichi, you're freaking me out – I'm calling an ambulance –"

"Hey, don't Taichi me," he whispered sleepily. Was that his attempt at humour? She could kill him right then. "I'm fine. I guess I broke a rib. Or two." And he nonchalantly announced his injuries.

" _What_?!"

"Listen," he drawled on, "I'm gonna have to... move into Matt's place before mum and dad come home. I can't explain this... to them."

He still hadn't explained this to her. She dug her face into her palm. "You have your priorities sorted, don't you? How about this – you're gonna have to go to a doctor."

"I will... but first I gotta get out of here. If they ask, you'll tell them I had to rush back to my dorm because - because I had something important next morning."

"Yeah that doesn't sound vague at all," she replied sarcastically, "I'll call Matt, and ask him to bring his car. When Kari comes home, I'll communicate your lameass excuse and then I'll stay the night there at Matt's. Okay?"

"You don't really need to... "

"Shut up, Tai."

"And Sora... also call Sora."

* * *

 _"And Sora... also call Sora."_

Mimi tried not to think about it. As it happened the Kamiya parents changed their minds about returning the very evening, so right then Kari had just locked the door and both of them were stumbling down the stairs (it was only so fast a crutch and a half-repaired ankle could take one) while their digimons had hopped ahead out to the pavement to get a cab. Sora. Of course. Sora was the _girlfriend_. Mimi felt strangely guilty about even proposing to stay at Matt's with him.

It took a quiet fifteen minute ride to reach the Ishida apartment. They watched Matt peek through the door, and then pull it ajar. He, too, sported a band-aid on the chin. Mimi grew more suspicious by the moment; she had noticed it back in the evening when he brought his car, but he, like Tai, shrugged about it and changed the topic.

"How's he doing?" Kari asked about her brother.

"He's cool," answered Matt, "He's reading Dr. Seuss. I mean, reading it aloud to our dog."

Mimi's thoughts shifted as she suppressed a giggle. "... Okay."

Matt exhaled almost comically, "I don't know. Maybe it's the meds. Or maybe he just likes the sound of his own voice."

An even funnier sight was Tai noticing them come, hurriedly stashing the book under his blanket and feign waking up from sleep. "Hey," he groaned at the sight of them, and sat up. The fluffy Labrador jogged past the bed and snuggled against his master's leg.

"How're you feeling, Tai?" asked Kari.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," he assured his sister. "What exactly was I doing when I came home in the afternoon? I'm thinking hard, but I can't possibly remember."

"You were crazy talking," smirked Mimi.

Tai looked up at her with a pathetic face. "I was?"

"I would've videotaped you had you not been all... battered." Never mind the high dose of tension he had provided her for free.

"Whoa," he laughed, "Consider me lucky, then."

She noticed that Kari and Matt were engaged in a conversation, took the opportunity and nudged Tai. "Where's Sora?" she whispered, purely out of curiosity.

"She went home," he said, "I asked her not to stay. It's Matt's place and you know how they are... it'll be awkward, and then his dad might come home at night and it'll be even more awkward – you get the idea. And I don't know why everyone's making such a big deal out of it. It's not like I'm dying or anything."

"Huh," she relented. On Sora's part, that did make sense. Maybe Mimi was the one who overreacted. Maybe it was the trace of the PTSD she had been trying to fight off? Who knew.

Tai looked curiously at her blank face, his cheery front attempted to break through her trance. "I don't know why but I feel so attacked every time you go into deep-thought mode."

She chuckled. "You want to talk about attack? Just wait until I tape you shimming on Viva Las Vegas again and release it in our chat group."

His face bypassed maroon. "H-how did you know about that? And what's with the taping threats today?"

She flipped her hair out of the face, as sassy as sassy could get, "I have my weapons, mon frére."

"Oh well. I'm hungry." It came so out of the blue and so comically pathetic it made her laugh.

"What d'you wanna eat? I'm in the mood to cook."

He seemed surprised. "You guys are staying here?"

"I'm guessing."

"Mimi, you don't have to –"

"Shhh, just consider this a picnic. Tell me what you wanna eat," she winked.

* * *

Matt's dad happened to have a sudden overnight shift, so it did seem like a peculiar picnic. Mimi donned the chef's hat for the night, and that basically involved dragging Matt into the kitchen (in her opinion, Matt was an awfully good cook and the world needed to know more about it). In another hour, the table was placed with delicious food, and Mimi's special lemon cake excitedly held the spotlight.

Kari had insisted she'd take Tai's food to the next room, but before any effort was made the man had arrived sniffing his way through with his digimon, and plopped on the chair with a big, childish smile on his face.

"You made lemon cake? Oh Ishida, I love you!"

"Me too!" Agumon piped in, as they both began to gobble up their food.

Mimi had almost decided against correcting him, when Matt cleared his throat and announced, "It's Mimi you ought to thank."

"Oh."

Tai looked up with a mouthful, straight at her, even as she blushed against her will. He winked, "I love you too, pinkie."

Damn it. What was with him tossing around the L-word like that? Was he still delirious? His odd jokes got her heart thumping. She gave him a mock-glare across the dining table, "Huh. Ass."

After dinner, they decided on watching a cheesy rom-com, while Tai was begrudgingly sent to bed thanks to his injuries. Mimi followed him as he trotted to his room for the night, sulking. He noticed her at the doorway, and beamed. "Hey. I was half expecting a callback."

"It's not a callback. You ought to sleep," she said, then broke into a giggle, "Poor Kari. What would she not give to spend a night like this. And only to be stuck here with the wrong sibling."

Tai raised a confused eyebrow. "What?"

"Oh, you know... T.K and... _crap_ , you are her brother. Why do I keep forgetting that."

He still looked suspicious. "Wait, what about... T.K and Kari?"

She sighed. "Seriously? You don't see it? You can't be that daft, c'mon."

"Now that you say it..."

"In any case, that's not what I came to talk about. I was," she hesitated for a split-second, then thought the best idea would be to let it all out, "I was wondering how you got injured. I mean, I thought about it and it didn't come across as soccer. And then I saw Matt, and he was kinda hurt too... so, I don't know, I'm missing something. What is it, Tai?"

As she expected, he winced and glanced away, and began a slow stroll towards the bed. Mimi didn't cave in; she occupied the bedside chair and waited determinedly. Their continuous aversion of the subject was making her all the more suspicious.

Tai sighed, once he realised there were no two ways about it, "Look, Mi -" This was when his phone rang.

He stared at the phone screen for a while even as it rang and blinked. From across the space, Mimi could see the call was from Sora. She tried to fix her attention at a photo frame instead, and waited for their lovey-dovey night-time talk to be done with. _What was up with the stupid sinking feeling though_ , she cursed herself.

Then with an odd move, Tai flicked left and rejected the call. Mimi frowned.

"Did you just cancel your girlfriend's call? Do you not want to see the light of the day?" she tried to joke. Why did he, though? Did they have a fight? Was it because he was talking to Mimi at the moment? No, no. Or was it because they were so intimate he didn't want her to hear what they talk about?

"She's calling me because I hadn't replied to her texts for the last hour," Tai laughed about it, scrolling through the messages, "I was about to really. Look at this – twelve texts! Did you have dinner – yeah, I did... Did you take meds – yup... Is it painful – nopety... Don't move around too much – man, she's like a mom!"

"It's only natural. She's worried." _So am I._

He continued to scroll through the texts, when she realised this was a not-so-subtle ruse to divert her from the subject.

"Tai."

He sighed in defeat. "Okay, but please don't be mad."

"...Okay."

"Two blocks by our house, I was all of a sudden attacked by a number of kuwagamons. I'm not sure what caused it, Izzy's looking into it. Only Matt could make it in time when I called for help. It was weird, and we were, like, completely overpowered."

Why would she be mad? What did it have to do – _oh_.

"I was two blocks away, why didn't you call me?"

He squinted, "I was hoping this wouldn't be an issue."

"Is it because I'm still wobbling on that crutch? You know, Palmon isn't. You could've used some help."

He looked like he was punched in the face. "What? No, that's not it –"

"I've become a liability. Just say it, why don't you." She turned for the crutch, rising to leave.

Tai began to stutter, desperate for some damage control, "Mimi, wait – did I come across like that - I didn't mean that, I'm sorry –"

"Then what, Tai? What perfect reason could you have for not calling a Digidestined who could've possibly even heard the commotion and thought of it as something else? You know what, you _can_ depend on other people! Most importantly, you do! You did call Matt! You probably called everybody! You even told everyone else to not tell me about it! Why?!"

"I do not think of you as weak."

"It's okay," she said coldly, still seething through her teeth, "I'm gonna go to bed."

"Mimi."

"What."

"Never mind."

"No. Tell me. Finish this."

"Is it too hard to see it?"

"See what?"

He pulled up the blanket and turned the other side; a certain spasm of pain in his ribs hit him and he recoiled, and shifted to face her again. "I told you," he groaned, "Never mind."

"I'm sorry I got so mad," she exhaled, tears stinging her eyes, "but face it, Tai. Stop running away. How long are you gonna run away from it? I have become a liability, you don't think I have noticed it? It's only right."

"Mimi, I'm not in a mood for violence right now but I'm gonna punch you if you call yourself a liability again."

"Tai..."

He reached out to smack her affectionately on the head, "You idiot, you'll make me say it, won't you. I care for you, Mi."

It sounded like consolation. "And do you not care for others?"

"Yes, of course. It's not... the same."

"What d'you mean?"

"I don't know, I don't know – after you got hurt that night – I don't know. Ignore what I said, I think it's the meds, I'm a little high and rambling right now."

"You're just running away again."

He flashed her a smile before he pulled the blanket over his head. Then came a muffled reply.

"I'd rather run."

* * *

 **15th January, 2008.**

It seemed like a bright sunny winter day. Almost so sunny it hurt. Tai blinked wearily into the laptop screen from under a blanket, slumped on the couch, one hand reaching out for the bag of half empty potato chips and the other scrolling through a year old chat thread.

 _greydinowarrior179_ : _**What kind of a name is floralpastieshoppingbug?**_

 _floralpastieshoppingbug_ : _**At least I don't have 178 greydinowarriors before me.**_

 _greydinowarrior179_ : -_-

 _ **Why hopping bug tho.**_ **._.**

 _floralpastieshoppingbug_ _ **: It's not hopping bug! It's shopping bug! -_-**_

 _greydinowarrior179_ _ **: Ohhkay that makes more sense.**_

 _floralpastieshoppingbug_ _ **: So how was prom, senior? :3**_

 _greydinowarrior179_ _ **: The food was delicious. :D**_

 _floralpastieshoppingbug_ _ **: Aaaaand what about the dance? OvO**_

 _greydinowarrior179_ _ **: Yep, I pretty much embarrassed Sora.**_

 _floralpastieshoppingbug_ _ **: Oh god, poor her poor her.**_

 _greydinowarrior179_ _ **: Hey but then I told her I like her. We are kind of dating. B)**_

 _greydinowarrior179_ _ **: Hey...?**_

 _greydinowarrior179_ _ **: You there?**_

 _greydinowarrior179_ _ **: Meeeemeeee~**_

 _greydinowarrior179_ _ **: Aren't you an excitement killer. -_-!**_

 _greydinowarrior179_ _ **: Mi?**_

 _floralpastieshoppingbug_ _ **: Oh my GOD Taichi this is so exciting! Sorry, mum called for something right now. You gotta have to give me treat, but I think you know that already! Am I not the best matchmaker ever? :D :D :D**_

Nothing ever helped. He looked down at today's date. It was the 15th. His insides knotted into a twist, even as he slammed the laptop down and buried his face into a cushion. The room was a bigger mess than he was: empty pizza boxes were scattered around like bricks, a two-day old coffee lay cold at the feet of the centre table; for some reason, everything seemed dull and dilapidated, and he couldn't be more thankful that Matt hadn't yet kicked him out of his house.

Suddenly, he heard a loud crash outside the room. He hurtled to his feet, slid the door open an inch to check. Matt had dropped the metal Laughing Buddha on the living room floor. At the door of the apartment was Sora, looking at the fallen thing with a lovechild of concern and curiosity.

Tai almost had the mind to shut the door again and return to his cave when he realised they were talking about him.

"Is it that bad?" asked Sora.

"Bad?" Matt scoffed, "He's literally living in solitary confinement. Hasn't talked to anyone for the past week. If I hadn't been answering his calls his family would've filed a missing report with the police. What about Mimi?"

Tai pressed his ear close to listen. Sora took a deep breath, and announced. It hurt how loud her words rang. "Mimi's probably reached the airport by now. She was crying. Is he really not going to see her off?"

"Umm..."

"I'm going to have a talk with him, right now." With it, she began to march towards the room before Matt could hold her back.

Tai ran into the couch and shoved himself into the blanket. Of course he'd pretend he didn't hear a word. He was going to pretend he didn't care. He couldn't see her off. It was too hard, too painful. It was then he heard the door slide open. Sora thundered, "Taichi?!"

"Go away, Sora."

"Get your ass off the couch. You're going to see off Mimi."

"I'm not going."

She came up to him. He defensively put the cushion up front, adamant. He noticed Matt, arriving at the door, his arms folded, his expression unreadable.

"Look," Tai raised his arms in mock-surrender, "You two coaxing me is not gonna make me move. I did my goodbyes two weeks ago. I'm done."

"You are running away."

"I'm not –"

"Stop running away, Tai. Face your feelings. Does it really need a punch to your face to realise that you love her?"

It set his heart pounding. He hadn't been thinking about it. He had ordered himself not to think about it. Did he really...?

 _Face it. Don't turn away. Stop running away_. After all this time, this was the least Mimi deserved to know. That he did indeed love her back.

 _Face it. Fucking face it._

"Taichi," Sora broke into his trance, "I know we had a rocky relationship for a year and –" with it, as if thunder struck her, her eyes widened and she gasped, "Oh god, tell me you're not torturing yourself just so I don't feel bad. Is that the reason?"

"I..."

He was certain he saw a ghost of a tear flashing in her eye. She glanced at Matt, and then smiled, "You sweet moron, Tai. But I guess I saw it long ago. Maybe it even made me jealous for a while – I don't know. Trust me, I see you together and I see how you guys fit. And nothing makes me happier than seeing my friends happy. So don't worry about me."

To be honest, he didn't remember if the thought of what Sora might feel if he and Mimi started a relationship crossed his mind – maybe it did, everything became so muddled he couldn't quite gain a sense of time – but somehow Sora's confession made the crushing weight upon his shoulders unbelievably light.

"You really don't mind?"

She wiped a tear away and laughed, lightly punching him on the arm. "No, _baka_. So are you coming to the airport with me?"

"... I don't know."

Sora relented this time, "Okay. Her flight's in an hour. Come if you change your mind." She made a beeline to the door, before pausing near Matt, "Are _you_ coming?"

"Um, I guess somebody needs to stay with him."

* * *

Fifteen minutes had passed since Sora left, and he still hadn't been able to make a decision.

What was stopping him? He'd do anything to see Mimi again. Maybe he couldn't come in terms with the idea of getting her and losing her the same time. Maybe he was scared the reverberating sound of the plane leaving – the sound of good-bye – would wreck him for good.

He looked up at the sound of a knock on the door. It was Matt. "Shall I come in?"

"It's your house, Matt."

He briskly walked in and settled at the other end of the couch. "So are you planning to convey it over the phone? Should I dial her up for you?"

"I don't know, maybe."

"Tai, do you really want to do it over the phone?"

"She's leaving, Matt." He felt the tears rush up to the surface, and he made no attempt to stop them. She was _leaving_. Why was no one else affected with the finality of the statement?

Matt put an arm around his shoulder. "Tai, listen to me. Has it ever occurred to you that she might change her mind about leaving if you tell about your feelings?"

He sniffed. "And what are the odds of that?"

"Haven't you always been a risk taker? When did you learn giving up? Now get off, we don't have much time. I'm gonna get my car out and you gotta finish your cliché ass love story."

Tai checked his watch – forty minutes to go. The way to the airport was almost a thirty-five minute ride. Without a jam, they could make it. It wasn't a working day, so chances of a traffic jam were low. Matt was right; he couldn't give up, and he couldn't bother wasting another minute in pointless thinking.

If it was even possible, Tai could physically feel regaining the lost confidence; he _was_ going to get her, and once he got her, he would never _ever_ let her go.

He grinned at Matt. "You're too slow. I'm driving." With it, he dashed out of the apartment.

Matt chased after him, "God forbid I let you drive if we want to get out of it alive, Kamiya. Last time you thought you saw a deer in the highway and rammed the car into a divider!"

* * *

They had made it in time, diving headfirst into the road and somehow snaking their way through and luckily not ending up with a speeding ticket. Tai ran past the usual crowd outside the airport, his heart throbbing so hard he felt it might burst out of his chest, when he spotted a bunch of familiar heads.

"Mimi!" he screamed almost incoherently, his breath falling short. It was the usual gang – Sora, Joe, Izzy, T.K, Kari, Davis, Yolei – but not the face he had been searching for. He reached up to them, his palms on his knees even as he gasped out, "Where's Mimi?"

"She went in a while ago," answered Sora, "She's probably in the waiting room, maybe. Her flight's in ten minutes."

 _Darn it_. He couldn't get to the waiting room without a ticket. He would've spent the money but there was no time to get in queue and book one. What now?

"Call her," Matt came from behind, handing him the phone, "Here, you almost left it back home in excitement. Now call her."

Tai caught the phone. His fingertips trembled. This was definitely not the way he wanted things to be, but nothing else mattered at the moment. He held it against his ear, his insides rumbling, even as his heart thumped on.

"Hello?" It was her voice.

"H-hey," he didn't know what to say. _Fuck it, brain, don't go blank on me now. Not now_.

"Tai, what happened?"

"Mimi, don't go."

She didn't speak for the next few seconds. Tai clenched his fist; it felt like centuries. He could hear her breathe on the other side.

"Go where?"

He furrowed his brows. "What?"

"Tai, what are you talking about? Are you okay? I haven't heard from you for the entire last week."

"Mimi, aren't you inside the airport waiting for your flight to New York?"

"Huh?" she sounded surprised, "No, I texted you last week. The entire thing got cancelled. I got a letter from the company telling me they don't hire students who haven't graduated from high school for the internship, so guess what, I'm staying here, trying to make sense of the finals..."

Tai glared back at the sniggering noises. All of them – _these bastards_ – were laughing. It started making sense: Matt dropping the Laughing Buddha was on purpose; they wanted him to overhear them. Even his phone was taken care of. It was perhaps foolproof; if he had locked himself up in his own house they'd have made Kari do it. All of it was an elaborate prank –er, _plan_. Who knew, maybe they had planned it all before her trip even got cancelled, and just decided to go along with it. Over the sound of the laughter, he probably heard Sora squeal, "Sorry Tai, you two are _wayyyy_ too frustrating. We had to get it out of you. Now go get her!"

"...Tai, are you listening?" asked Mimi, a little confused, "I'm hearing some kind of commotion out there. Is everything alright?"

"Mi, where are you at the moment?"

"At the Tokyo Central complex. Why?"

"Just stay there. I'm coming. I got something important to tell you. After that, I gotta murder some people."

"Wait, what – I don't understand –"

His smile would've eclipsed the sun. "Mimi, I've finally stopped running away. Wherever you are, just wait for me."

* * *

 **Okay, this story is jinxed, it just never ends! Another chapter left, and I really really really promise it would be the last!**

 **Please review! :D**


	9. Chapter 9

**CHRISTMAS 2007, CONTINUED : MISTLETOE**

* * *

"Now _that_ was weird."

Mimi shoved the phone back into her purse and turned to Palmon, pouting her mouth into a virtual question mark. After not getting a reply from Tai about the cancellation earlier this week, she had half-expected him to be upset with her - but this - this call sounded like him jumping out of the bathtub running naked on the streets screaming "Eureka!".

Well, he asked her to wait. _Let's_.

On another note, at the eve of her staying in Japan, she had second thoughts about flipping out and breaking down about the mess she had made. Maybe she needed to sit together with Tai and Sora, talk to them, and bow out of the tangle and move on.

 _"He loves you, Mimi."_

Or maybe, just wait?

That mess of brown hair and the glint of goggles around the neck wasn't too hard to spot even in the crowd. Her heart practically leaped out of her chest. That was fast. He was already there, and even as he walked towards her, he looked strangely exhilarated, as if he had won a race.

"I will kill them," he ranted, beaming, "I'll kill all of them... ugh, it's a shame I can't actually kill them..." With it, he grinned.

"Tai? What's going on?"

He bit his lip and scratched the back of his head. Stared right into her eyes, and gave her a smile - a shy, dorky, adorable smile. It was scary and fascinating at the same time; she held her arms around her sides to suppress the tension bubbling inside her. Where was this heading?

"Taichi?"

"Umm, look this is not easy - this is not easy - I know I just received a push -more like a kick - but then you know it's gotta be me making the final leap -"

"Huh?"

"- Okay so this is gonna be fast like ripping off a band-aid - so umm, Tachikawa Mimi, you may punch me as much as you like for hanging about and not coming straight about this - but er - ever since you told me that night I kinda realised uh, well - _Ifellinlovewithyoutoo_ \- and uh, I should've practiced this in the car - and maybe - _maybeyou'llhaveacupofcoffeewithme_?"

Damn it, this idiot. She felt the uncontrollable tears surge up and rush down her face. As an almost knee jerk reaction, she punched him in the chest before crashing against it. Even as she sensed his tender hand on the shoulder, trying to calm her down, she sobbed harder and harder, until she had let out all she had pummelled inside, then finally gave out a small chuckle. "Throw a hint or two, next time!"

She glanced up at him. His eyes were glistening too. "I never knew I meant so much to you," he said, his voice cracking up.

"Well, now you know! Your voice's cracking."

"Shut up, it's puberty!"

"You're nineteen!"

"If you're gonna mock me, you're gonna have to stop crying."

"I'm not crying, you're crying!"

"Crybaby."

"Ass."

"So, what- what is the story? You sounded real excited over the phone..."

He shrugged it off, "Oh, never mind, it's a long one. Although Matt really felt bad about it and so he says he'll put his life on line and permit me to drive his car for an entire week. But that's all for later. First things first."

He pulled out a red string from his pocket and tied it around her wrist. "What's this?" she asked curiously.

"Just something I believe in, and something I've never given to anyone before," he told her, "I was - I was so scared I was about to lose you -"

"Tai, you wouldn't have lost me, we kinda have this habit of bumping into each other all the time," she winked, trying to keep it on the low. Her chest felt inflated to the point it could burst; she could die from the happiness. All this time, she had underestimated his feelings. She'd never do that again.

"Oh, ya think?" he chuckled.

"Sorry for interrupting you two," Palmon spoke out of nowhere, smiling like there was no tomorrow, "but I gotta ask, are you gonna kiss on your own, or do I need to evolve and ram your heads together?"

Never mind the circumstances, Mimi's neck grew so hot it probably burnt through the furry collar of the overcoat, while she sprang apart from him like a Mexican jumping bean. "It's too public," she chastised the smug digimon, bypassing maroon. From the corner of her eye, she could spot red specks of embarrassed on Tai's face too.

"Hmmm... on second thoughts," he rubbed his chin and play-acted to rack his brains, "there's some private space near that stack of mistletoe right around the corner."

"Taichi!"

"Now, now, you can't say no to mistletoe, can you?"

Before she could reply, Palmon gave them a slight push. "No worries. I'll keep guard."

* * *

 **CHRISTMAS 2012: STRINGS ATTACHED**

* * *

"Oh good God, you gotta stop stepping on me. Your pencil heels hurt."

"Hey, _you_ asked me to close my eyes."

She could feel him tenderly hold her hand as she trotted blindly ahead. She had no idea where this was headed; the place smelled unfamiliar - of fresh oak and varnish - and Tai's deodorant, but she guessed that one was because of the proximity. The next moment, he let go of her fingers, and piped, "Thirty more seconds."

"This has to be the most romantic way anyone has ever kidnapped anyone before," she laughed, followed with a knock on wood and a clunk of metal.

"Dammit, can't find the keys... ah, there it is."

Yes, then came a jingle of keys and squeak of the door, and if she heard it right - a flick of a switch. With a pleasant feeling in the gut, she put a step ahead. Tai loudly cleared his throat and announced, "Okay. Open your eyes."

It was a dusty new apartment. Wooden furnishings, a seven-storied view from the front porch, a king-sized bed and a mattress to the right still packed in plastic and a last-ditch effort of sprinkling flower petals over it. She turned around, almost knocking herself over a slightly unpacked carton. "Did you win a lottery?"

He pretended to straighten an imaginary tie, "Well, let's just say I'm officially the peacekeeper between two worlds."

"Are you freaking kidding me!" her first reaction was to jump on him right away, arms around his neck. Never mind the cartons nailed to the floor. He stumbled backwards but managed to steady himself against the wall, grinning; after four years of experience, he must've become more than used to these kinds of outbursts. She kissed him on the lips even as he plucked the hair behind her ear and let it fall over her face. He whispered, "Are you happy?"

"Happy? Could I be any happier?! This is what you always wanted!" she bopped his nose, teasing him, "You're gonna get sooo famous! Ah, finally I get to be the gold-digger I always wanted to be."

"Shut up," he mock-glared at her, "I'm the one supposed to pay back for all the freeloading I did from your boutiques."

"You mean your dinosaur tie collection? Nobody would've bought them anyway."

For the lack of a good comeback, Tai pulled her chin up for another kiss; of all these years of closeness and distance, of the nights they have spent sitting back against back and of the ones Skypeing over two different continents, the kisses had ever felt the same. His messy hair had ever felt so warm against her ice cold fingertips; he had always tasted like peppermint against her strawberry.

"Okay, we gotta make this place chic," she began, "the bed's in a totally weird direction, that chair's blocking the sunlight - and you, you need a better suit collection, and a haircut."

He sighed in exasperation, "Good god, not again."

"Puh-lease, you never get a haircut."

"Do you realise I'd have looked like some kind of Rapunzel if I never got a haircut?"

"Okay. Eww. Way to assault my imagination."

"Oh c'mon," he nudged her, "My hair's okay."

"Tai, they'll throw you out of the office if you still carry your rockstar nest."

"You love it, though."

"I don't!"

He just smiled smugly. He knew he was right. As much as the hair attacked her fashion sensibilities, it just wouldn't be Tai without it. It had some advantages; it made him easy to spot in a crowd, to prepare a big fat scolding beforehand in times when he ran late, and um, it felt nice to run her fingers through it during all the _sexytimes._ Amidst the gloom of jobs and responsibilities and rushing about, his warm brown eyes, his childish smile and his wild mess of hair had come in like a bright ray of sunshine. He felt like home; he was the one place she could return to.

"Hey, how about I get a French beard?" he broke into her trance, as she realised they now lay on the slippery still-packaged mattress, her arms still around his neck, his fingers caressing her exposed belly and leaving a tingling sensation behind, his eyes on hers, bright.

"Mmmhh... no. I like my commoners clean-shaven."

"Too bad, princess. I make my own rules."

"Last new year, everyone thought you're gonna do magic with that top hat."

He relented, "Huh. Okay. Point made."

"Tai, tell me something."

"What?"

For a second, she hesitated. She didn't want to bog him down. But couldn't help the thought floating past her brain every now and then. She gazed at him, "Is this going to be dangerous?"

He gave off a small chuckle and looked away, "Uh, I don't know. Occupational hazards sometimes, I guess, maybe. Who likes a table job?"

"Taichi."

"Hey, now you're being silly, Mimi. Haven't we lived with that kind of danger our entire lives?"

She wished they were past that point; she really did. It seemed everybody else was; T.K, Kari and company were college studs now, Sora was thinking of opening a business, Matt was busy with his PhD studies (she smirked to herself; who thought he'd go that far?), Izzy seemed set with his research, Joe had just begun to practice medicine. The human world appeared to be at peace with the digiworld. But, but if all was suddenly torn apart, wouldn't people like Nshijima and Tai be the first to fall on line? It was a bit scary.

"Hey," his voice was tender, "What are you thinking?"

She shrugged, and dug her face into his shirt, "... Nothing really."

His fingers traced hers and paused over the frazzled, faded-red string he had tied around the one four years ago. "Do you know the ulnar artery connects the pinkie straight to the heart?"

She glanced up, "This promise string ring, huh?"

"I actually heard a cheesy story about an old man coming out of the moon and all, and uniting soul mates, who ties a red string between them so they can meet and be together all their lives."

"I remember you told me it's about something you believe in."

She watched Tai fall in deep thought. He mumbled, "It wasn't the story that I believed in."

"Then?"

"It's us, Mi. I believed in us. You can say I bound us by fate. So as long as you are there, I'm not going anywhere."

Holding back tears had never been easy for her. She punched him in the arm, "You dummy."

"I would've told you all of it on our first date but I was afraid I might've scared you away," he grinned, "I would've followed you anywhere."

"You don't even follow me on Twitter."

"My college team still does."

"And tumblr."

"Okay, now _that_ is a dumb place."

She glared at him sideways, "Excuse me? My side-boutique thing shot up because of it. You owe your dino ties to tumblr."

"Ah, well," he surrendered, "Oh and I heard Sora and Matt are together again."

"It was about time they did. Only if that _tundra_ could speak his feelings."

Tai did a double-take, and laughed, "You still can't speak Japanese, can you?"

"What- what did I say wrong?" she asked curiously. Instead of answering, he raised and reached out for a bunch of keys and dropped it in her palms, "Turns out this year I got your name in our Secret Santa draw."

"Basically means you got off easy," she teased, when he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her closer. "Shut up and listen," he grinned, "Wanna live together?"

* * *

 **CHRISTMAS 2017: THE PRINCESS AND THE KNIGHT**

* * *

"Okay, there's an emergency."

"Eh?"

Tai's best men, Matt and Izzy, suited for the occasion with a slightly matching dark tuxedo with a blue rose in the pockets, looked up at him with what seemed like a lovechild of terror and we-saw-it-coming. Tai sheepishly scratched the back of his head, then suddenly remembered the efforts he had put to pet his hair for this one day, so he shoved his hand into his pocket instead.

Without further ado, Izzy pulled out a metre long piece of paper from inside his coat, and announced, "Thankfully, I've been prepared for such a situation."

"What's this?"

"A list of ways you can mess up your own wedding."

"...Okay." He couldn't argue now.

"So, what is it?" Izzy's eyes travelled to the end of the list for the worst possibilities, "Diarrhoea? Panic attack?"

"No, no -"

"Did you eat all the appetisers? You _knew_ those are for the guests," Matt chastised him.

"Guys, no -"

Izzy glanced up from the sheet. "Okay, I'm scared now. What have you done?"

"... I kind of..." Tai's voice died down to a mere mumble; this was embarrassing, "I kind of lost my set of vows."

"You did _what_?!"

"It's - it's a piece of paper alright," Tai tried to put up a defence, "It just flew somewhere out and it must be lying around on the floor - I don't know, help me."

"I'm carrying around your wedding ring, a hefty gold ring, and you can't even handle a piece of paper?" Matt was really... mad. It seemed he was restraining himself just because it was Tai's big day. Tai backtracked a few steps. It was better to maintain an arm's distance from the guy.

"Okay, this can be solved," said Izzy, "You remember it, right? We'll just write it again. We still have... five minutes before the ceremony begins."

"Actually..." Tai grinned nervously. He was definitely going to get punched by one of his best men, "I copied them from the internet."

"You did _what_?!"

"I don't remember the site either."

"Jesus Christ, Taichi," Matt had begun to lose patience, "it's your wedding vows, not your high school homework!"

"Hey, you knew what you're signing up for when you agreed to be my best man -"

"Alright, silence guys." Izzy again. "What do we do?"

"Do you want me to sneak into Mimi's room and take a look at hers -"

" _NO_!" His best men screaming in unison was frankly terrifying.

Agumon came in tottering, somehow fitted into a tux-like costume, and nudged his face into Tai's shin. Tai glance down to find a very odd facial expression, as if the digimon was about to throw up. "I don't feel too well," Agumon complained, "I think I accidentally ate paper or something."

Collective gasp _. Wow._

"What are you people still doing here? The minister is ready. Get to the aisle!" It was Sora, storming into the scene from nowhere. It was a tiring day, and Sora was responsible for half of the arrangements, what with getting Mimi dressed up for every ceremony since the shrine wedding in the morning, to the flowers and guests and the food (knowing there was good food was all that was inspiring Tai to get through the process, but now that he had screwed up, he doubted if he was even getting any).

Izzy had almost opened his mouth to tell her, but Matt tactfully pinched him to silence. Tai heaved a sigh of relief; strands of Sora's hair were already standing up in all odd directions, telling her about this would be practically provoking her to murder.

"Okay, soldier, you're on your own," Matt patted the groom on the back, and gave him a slight push towards the ceremony hall, "You gotta do it on the spot."

Izzy empathised with him, "RIP in pieces, Taichi."

* * *

It wasn't as if Tai didn't care. It was just... well, he didn't think he could quantify their love in any manner, and certainly not in the manner of a subject that he barely passed in school.

Right then, as everyone waited for the bride, he traced and retraced in his mind the timeline of their relationship, summing up stuff to say. What was he even going to say? Why did he copy word-for-word from the internet, and why did this place have no wi-fi for emergency measures?

And then the bride appeared and shit hit the ceiling.

She looked so beautiful, so goddamn beautiful that every word slid off the registers in his mind. It was a delicate white gown, satin straps going around the neck, and the sheer veil falling off her shoulders with a kind of unearthly elegance. Her lips were cherry as she tried not to bite them out of nervousness. Her eyes were auburn, caramel, golden - he might run out of words. She was beaming. She was blazing. She was like a lone _sakura_ tree glowing atop the mountain of paradise.

When Matt gently grabbed and squeezed his arm, he realised that he was so in awe that tears had trickled down his cheeks. He hastily turned and rubbed his face dry with his sleeve.

When his eyes met Mimi's, they winked.

The minister announced, "As we proceed to join this man and this woman in the bond of holy matrimony..."

Tai's heartbeat accelerated so fast that he could hardly hear a word. In all seriousness, what was he going to do? Was he going down in front of everyone - and most importantly, in front of Mimi - as the lousiest husband-to-be ever? Was he going to stand gaping and say "I love you and will love you forever" and ask the minister to move on? What if Mimi had prepared an essay sized set of vows? Oh god, Michael was in the guests, wasn't he? If Tai didn't speak a word, Michael would burn Mimi's ears out and never let the moment die. _Oh god oh god oh god oh god -_

"Now, proceeding to the vows. The bride?"

 _Damn, this part came fast._

Mimi borrowed the sheet of paper from the bridesmaid (the key moment when Tai reevaluated his life and. wondered whether he should've handed his own sheet to his sister as well), and unfolded it. The process brought on a fresh onslaught of tears, and she could barely make out a word as she began.

It was kind of adorable. "Make-up, Mi," he low-key warned her about her priority before she smeared it.

"Oh fuck," she let out a swear-word in front of the minister without thinking. Tai held back a laugh, trying not to look at the minister's scandalised face. This wedding was going well... yeah, that particular old man was never coming back.

"T-Tai," she started, and her voice quivered, "we started so long back but I never thought we'll end up here today. When everyone called me princess, naturally it came upon me to dream about my prince. I always wondered when I'd meet my prince. But I found something much more. I found a best friend, an inspiration, someone who'd make me laugh and someone who'd stay by my side when I cry. Someone who'd protect me and who'd I want to protect."

She stared at him with glassy affectionate eyes, her voice getting heavier by the minute, so much so that Tai choked back the lump in his own throat. "Instead of a prince, I found my knight in shining armour, Taichi. Every day with you is a thrilling ride. You told me you had bound us by fate, so I'll stay by your side through thick and thin, through sickness and health, because I _love_ you, and till the day I die I'll never stop loving you."

She had done it. Tai just wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her, but to save the sanity of the minister, he refrained. Behind her, Sora and Kari looked like they'd melt into mush any moment, tears streaming down their faces and hands together, smiling. Suddenly, he felt bad about pulling off a run-of-the-mill set of vows for Mimi. No, it was a good thing Agumon ate it. Mimi deserved the best.

"The groom?"

Yes. Yes. He took in a deep breath. Screw the rules, he reached out and clasped her hands, locking his fingers with hers.

"Long back is an understatement, don't you think? I was an unthinking loudmouth and you were a spoiled crybaby..."

 _Ten-year-old Taichi Kamiya thought this sudden transportation into another world was a fun idea for an adventure. But he couldn't understand why everybody else wasn't enjoying it the same._

 _Summing up, Izzy was curious, Matt was emo, Sora thought her digimon partner was way too clingy, Joe was busy being the responsible daddy of the group, T.K - well, he was only one actually enjoying other than him. But this other girl, this girl was getting on his nerves._

 _What was her name? Mimi... something. Sora knew her._

 _"Suck it up, stop complaining about everything. You are lucky you even found an abandoned bus to sleep in for the night. You are lucky you didn't get eaten up by that giant dingbat." He wanted to say, but watching her face, he didn't have the heart to. However, if she whined again, he would._

 _"Is this yours?" she tapped him on the shoulder. It was the map of the place that he had drawn, and it must've had fallen out of his pocket._

 _"Yeah," he snatched it right out of her hands. "It's very important."_

 _"What, is it like a doodle or something?"_

 _"It's a map!"_

 _"Oh. Sorry."_

 _"Why are you not sleeping?"_

 _"Those bus seats are too tough."_

 _Again with that. "You should get some sleep. We'll be moving early morning."_

 _"I can't do this anymore," she groaned, her hat toppling out of her reach, "I can't walk anymore. My legs hurt. The place is full of bugs, I can't sit down either. I'm gonna stare at the flowers and wait for something good to happen."_

 _What?_

 _"There are no flowers at night here," she observed, "I miss home. I miss mom. I miss dad. Do you not miss home?"_

"Somehow, even then you spoke of the right things to say. You thought of things the ten-year-old me never bothered to think about. You thought of the feelings and emotions of people I ignored while blindly charging forward. Mi, you might not realise this, but your empathy, your _sincerity_ became my _courage_..."

 _Everything was breaking apart. His heart was hammering inside his chest even as Greymon galloped through the highway, stalling cars and escaping blocks of concrete. He needed to head for the community hall._

 _He trusted Matt and Sora, but he was still scared. What if holding people hostage was just a trap? What if Demidevimon found out that Kari was the eighth child and went after her? He couldn't believe he wasn't with his sister at a moment as crucial as this. It was terrible. He wanted to take a turn and return to that warehouse where he had left Kari._

 _All of a sudden, Greymon leaped off the bridge, and Mimi grabbed Tai around the waist and dug her forehead into his back. Mimi. He had completely forgotten about her sitting behind him. When her head touched the crease of his neck, he could hear her breathing. Sharp, ragged, urgent, terrified._

 _"We have to save them. All of them," she whispered to him. With resolve._

 _She was right. He had to trust Matt and Sora at the moment and get his duty done. He couldn't afford getting his thoughts muddled up right then. The whole city was in danger. He slid his hand behind him and found hers._

 _"I know," he sensed his heartbeat steadying as soon as he held his comrade's hand; he wasn't alone in this. "We will."_

"... You have been like a wall - stable for me to back against every time I felt vulnerable. Your cheerful disposition - _man_ , what can I say? Your cheeriness is like a bright ray of light at the end of a dark tunnel. All those times you stood by me or stood with me... when I look back I want to wish only we had fallen in love even sooner than we did..."

 _Seventeen year-old Tai opened the door of the empty apartment and trotted in. He felt as if his breathing was constricted, a certain rock on his chest hindering it. It was a bad day._

 _Their team lost in the preliminaries. It was probably the worst defeat they've had in the last five years. He sighed. He was to blame. He missed the crucial shot. He could still feel the eyes of his teammates burning into his back after he walked away in a fit of rage. Their consolations had sounded so half-hearted._

 _Worse still, he had no one to look to at the stands. No one who'd look disappointed, or who'd say "Better luck next time." Once in a blue moon, Izzy or Kari came to watch. Anyone else was a hard sight. He didn't even want his mind to tread near Sora; she was in a relationship after all, he saw her the least..._

 _He fell back on the couch, his elbows on his knees, his face in his palms. Kari had extra classes. His mother was at the supermarket. He had never been more glad about being alone. Now he could let his tears fall free._

 _Without warning, his phone pinged._

 _' **This is my final message of warning. If you don't reply the last of your share of cinnamon fruit toasties is going to my mouth. I took one while writing this, just sayin. -_-** '_

 _Mimi._

 _"Huh?" Tai opened the thread to find a flurry of texts that she had sent since the morning. Granted, maybe it was only because they had been really hyper-texting each other from Christmas Day, with her being the inquisitor and him being the alibi to his own escapades of failed romances, and yet Tai couldn't help but feel a little warmed about the text._

 _' **Sorry, Mimi, had a match today. Was busy. :(** '_

 _The reaction was instantaneous._

 _' **WHAAAT** '_

 _And then another ping._

 _' **Wow you didn't even tell me. ;_;** '_

 _No one had ever been interested about his soccer matches. It wasn't as if he hadn't tried. To tell other people that was. The group had drifted, no surprise there. Everyone has their own commitments. Mimi... she just landed to Tokyo this December, it didn't even cross his mind..._

 _' **Sorry it slipped out of my mind. Next time, promise!** '_

 _' **So when's the next match? ^o^** '_

 _' **No more till September. We crashed out.** '_

 _' **Oh shit. Are you okay?** '_

 _' **Yeah.** '_

 _' **I have cinnamon fruit toasties. You doofus. I'm coming over~~** '_

"... And trust me, you are stronger than you let on, braver than you believed..." Tai's voice cracked, and he sensed an upsurge of tears blurring his vision. It came without warning. Maybe it was the memory behind that triggered it.

 _A push. It was sudden and it was sharp, and it was followed by a loud thud. He had fallen off his balance and landed on his butt, a little jarred. "What just happened?"_

 _And then he watched._

 _"No, no," he sprinted forth as soon as the cloud of dust cleared out, and skidded to his knees. It hurt, but he didn't care. "Mimi, no, oh my god..."_

 _There she was, half-buried beneath the rubble. Fresh blood oozed out of a cut near her hairline. In a frantic hurry, he pulled her out of the mess. She didn't seem to have any external injury apart from the bleeding gash on her forehead. And she was breathing; it was a steady, slow breath, but it was there._

 _Why did she do it? Why would she do it? She pushed him aside. That chunk of concrete; the whole balcony. She could've, she could've been killed. He cradled her into his arms; for a while, he didn't know what to say, or what to do. "Wake up," he squeaked._

 _And then he cried. He cried until he felt Kari jerking him to his senses, telling him to stop behaving as if Mimi was dead, comforting him, asking him to look for medical attention, and that the wound required a doctor. Soon more surrounded them, the digimons, people from the apartment complex, Mimi's parents, and the best option off the top of their heads was to carry her to the Kamiya residence._

 _Hours later, he peeked into the room she lay in, standing by the door. She looked so peaceful, even as her head was bandaged and foot plastered. When others left, he slowly tiptoed in. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, he thought he was on the verge of fainting._

 _She saved his life._

 _No. She saved his life while risking her own._

 _Why would she do that?_

 _"Onii-chan," it was Kari, "Get some rest."_

 _"I'm good."_

 _"Your arm is bleeding."_

 _Hell, he didn't even notice. He pressed it against his shirt, away from his sister's concerned eyes._

 _"You must really care about Mimi-chan."_

 _What - what was that supposed to mean? The way Kari said it, the tone, the curiosity... something was odd._ _He cared about everyone. How_ _was this any different?_

"...It was always different with you, Mimi. Always. When I look back, I just wish I had noticed before. We've been together for years and still going strong, and now we are here, and yet I wish I had noticed before. I can't believe I wasn't spellbound by how beautiful you are right from day one. I can't believe I didn't say I love you right on the day we met. But I'm glad you are the last person I fell in love with. Because now I can love you forever. And whatever comes, I know we can make through it because I'll always be your knight in shining armour and you'll always be my _princess_."

There it was. His speech was over. He had no track over what he spoke, so he looked about for reactions. The hall was silent, aside a few sniffs and sobs here and there. He turned to his groomsmen. Izzy's glasses could've had wipers on them, and Matt gave him a thumbs-up, and a light chuckle.

" _Youuuuu dummmmmyy!_ "

And that just came out of nowhere. He realised the minister has backtracked a good five steps in surprise (horror), as the bride flailed her arms open and jumped upon the groom for a kiss. After the initial shock, Tai snaked his arm around her waist, and pulled her closer. It wasn't _their_ wedding unless they rightfully scandalise a few people.

And then he kissed her. "Merry Christmas."

And she kissed him back. "And a happy New Year."

They didn't exactly expect applause, but, well, in this case it didn't seem to stop.

* * *

 **So guys, I guess this is it. Sappy AF. But you guys and these characters deserve to be sappy and happy. :3**

 **(I have a bonus chapter in mind from Sora and Matt's perspectives but shhh, it's a secret). Thank you all for being SOOOO patient and reading this story. Every review, every favourite and follow is precious to me and made my day. All those guests with those hilarious reviews, you guys made my days, I feel so loved. Thank you so much!**

 **Do tell how it was! And how it was as a full story! My first completed story, I feel so proud, lol.**


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